


Entanglements of Love

by Babykitsune9



Category: Bleach, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Amused Steve Rogers, Avengers - Freeform, Confused Bucky Barnes, F/M, Female Kurosaki Ichigo, Parent Tony Stark
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-27
Updated: 2019-09-27
Packaged: 2020-10-29 07:22:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 30,982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20792834
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Babykitsune9/pseuds/Babykitsune9
Summary: He didn't know how it happened- well okay that was a lie- one minute he and Stark were rolling around the floor raising all kinds of hell and the next he was...engaged? And to make matters more complicated, the bride to be is Starks adopted kid? A fem Ichigo/Bucky story.





	1. Chapter 1

She stuck out like a sore thumb. Was the absolute first thing that he noticed about her when he stepped off of the Quinjet behind Steve. It had been almost four years since he and the rest of the former 'rogue' Avenger's had stepped foot on American soil.

Not since what everyone had begun referring to as 'civil war'. The event that had broken up the old Avengers team and caused such hostility between everyone who had once been friends.

In the four years since everyone had split and they had become rogues- a lot had changed. I mean, how could it not? After what had happened in Siberia between himself, Steve and Tony Stark, of course there would be a considerable difference in each of them.

They had beaten Stark into the ground and Steve had driven his shield into the man's chest again and again and then left him for dead. And from what little bit of him that they had each seen in the news and such since then, the betrayal that the man had suffered had cut him deeply and left him scarred in more ways than one.

Since then his relationship with his fiancée had ended. His friend Rhodey, was still in the coma that he had fallen into from his injuries during the civil war incident. Which was a shame. Bucky had heard that he was a good man.

Thor and Banner had long since returned from whatever adventure that they had been on while missing.

And then of course there was her.

_The girl_.

It had been reported several weeks prior to their return that Stark had a kid. Of course this had come as a huge shock to most of them. Maybe not _all_ of them, but some of them certainly.

They had only seen pictures of the two together once or twice out in public.

In each picture, Tony had an arm wrapped around her slender shoulders. His posture and the look on his face practically screamed of _protectiveness_. And on one occasion while the two had been out in the city, Tony had reportedly assaulted a young man who had approached the girl with the intention of asking her out on a date.

The poor guy had suffered a blackened eye, a broken nose, and a fractured arm.

After which Stark had grabbed his kid and practically dragged her out of the public's eye where she had been reported to be 'locked up' in the new compound that Tony had bought to use as a base for the new Avenger's team.

So here they were several weeks later, finally pardoned by the government of all of the charges that had been pressed against them for the civil war incident, staring down the press, Stark- who despite all outward appearances in front of the camera's really didn't look all that happy to see them- and of course the kid.

She stuck out like a sore thumb with her odd colored eerie blue eyes, and even stranger colored near waist length hair. She was exotically lovely. He'd be so bold to even say that she was _gorgeous_ if he didn't think that Stark might use one of his gauntlets to shoot him.

"Tony, it's nice to see you again." Steve said politely, meaning every word. Despite having been on the run for the past four years, he had missed the shorter man.

Tony didn't say anything back. He merely nodded his head curtly, causing the smile on Steve's face to dim some before he stepped aside for the others. Each one of them greeted the man in different ways. Nat with a smirk. Clint looked as if he wanted to slug the man. Wanda didn't even bother saying anything at all.

Tony merely nodded his head, a little less curtly this time, at him when he walked up. He wasn't sure how to react to the action given the man's hatred of him. So he just ducked his head and went to stand beside Steve as Sam and Scott walked off of the jet.

Stark's greeting of them was considerably warmer and kinder.

Probably because he didn't consider the two of them back stabbing murderous assholes like the rest of them.

Once everyone was off of the jet Stark started talking, making some speech about how nice it was to have them all home. Bucky knew that the man was at least partially lying given the fact that he was still pissed.

He did however mention that _he_ had been cleared of all charges against him for the time spent as a prisoner of Hydra, which _surprised_ him a great deal more than he had expected that it would.

But then Bucky hadn't exactly expected someone who hated him to do anything to fight for him.

Upon finishing his speech, he turned and lightly grasped the girl's arm and started to drag her off. Not really caring or not that his behavior was being scrutinized by the world itself when Nat asked who the kid was.

Tony merely cast a cold look over his shoulder at her and then walked away. Not even bothering to answer the woman's question.

Bucky suspected that it wasn't any of their business.

But none of them could help but feel more than a little bit curious. After all having a civilian nearby- even one with some sort of parental ties to Stark- could be a security risk for them in the future. Especially if the kid got kidnapped or something.

Everyone fell into step behind Stark after that, following him silently into their new home and away from prying eyes. One of the first things that Bucky noticed once they were out of the public's eye, was the way that the girl jerked her arm out of Tony's grasp and cast a dark glare in the man's direction before stuffing her hands in her jean pockets and then walking off.

Leaving Tony to sigh tiredly before directing everyone to one of the meeting rooms. He had made it perfectly clear to all of them that if he was going to get them back on American soil- then they would be signing the newly amended accords.

Once everyone was in the meeting room, Tony directed everyone to a chair and then took one for himself and started to sit when Clint asked, this time, who the girl was. Bucky watch as Starks barely maintained composure slipped into something dark and malicious before the man very calmly said that she was the blood relation of someone that he once knew.

He was her legal guardian, and she didn't need the stress of strangers asking stupid questions that were none of their business so soon after awakening.

Bucky's mind latched onto the word 'awakening' and the way in which Stark had said it and frowned. He couldn't help it, there was simply something unnatural about the way that the man had mentioned the word.

Feeling his mind wander a bit as Stark started their little pow-wow, he couldn't help but wonder at the meaning of the word. Why had Stark said it like that? What exactly did he mean by 'awakening'? He made it sound as the kid were another- his mind screeched to a halt and he fisted his hands tightly in his lap, trying desperately to get around the question now eating at him and the anxiety that came with it.

Was the kid another Winter's Soldier? He wondered as he felt his heart pound in his chest, his anxiety skyrocketed to unnatural heights, and he broke out in a cold sweat.

It sort of made sense, really. Given just how _secretive_ and _protective_ Stark was of the kid. Especially if she had been brainwashed and used by Hydra just like he had been. And given the fact that the girl was still a kid- little more than a teen really- he wouldn't have been able to turn his back on her without feeling some semblance of guilt.

Her situation would have pulled at the man's heartstrings in ways that Bucky's own situation wouldn't have.

The meeting finally ended after about an hour in a half, after which Stark told them that they could leave and go to their rooms and rest up for a little while before dinner.

* * *

Ichigo was sitting in her bedroom on the floor with her back against the bed and her knees drawn to her chest. Her eyes staring blankly ahead at the grey-ish colored wall.

_So those were the 'rogues' that I'd heard so much about..._ She wondered to herself as she rested her chin on one of her knees. It had been almost two months since she had first awakened to find her world had been ripped away from her while she had been in a coma.

Sure her friends, Chad, Uryu and Orihime were okay. But that was largely in part of Rukia, Urahara and the rest of the soul reapers that had been picking up the slack since she had fallen at the hands of Aizen a year ago.

Her family and some other choice people however- hadn't been quite so lucky.

They had been slaughtered. Each and every one of them.

Closing her eyes against the onslaught of pain that she felt due to her losses, she tried to fight back the urge to cry before then feeling frustrated. _Dammit!_ If only she hadn't sacrificed her power to take Aizen out. Maybe, just _maybe_ her dad and sisters and the others that had died, would still be alive.

She was so engrossed in her own thoughts that she completely missed the fact that her door had opened and someone had walked in until the fine hairs on the back of her neck started to stand on end.

Tensing up, she waited until whoever was close enough to grab and then in one fluid lightening quick motion, she seized the intruder's wrist and flung them across the room and then got to her feet, intent on putting whoever had dare to come into her room, down like a rabid dog.

She was half way across the bed before she even realized that she had just injured her guardian.

Tony lay sprawled half on the floor, with his back and legs in the air with a dazed look on his face. Ichigo paused in mid motion for a moment, her mind finally registering his presence as 'human' and 'not a threat' before she made any effort to move over to him and see if he was okay.

He just blinked at her as he flopped himself over so that he could push himself upright and rub the back of his head where he'd probably smacked it against the floor or something before muttering in a pained sounding voice, "Okay... I can take a hint. I guess I was pretty much asking for that huh?"

She knelt down beside him and started to reach out, but figured that maybe she had done enough for now- she dropped her hand back to her lap and lowered her eyes. Afraid of his anger or hatred.

"It's fine kid. I should have knocked and let you know that I was going to come in instead of simply barging in and expecting a warm reception." Tony said after a moment or so, earning an wary look from her as he finally dropped his hand away from his head and studied her for a moment.

Her shoulders were slumped, her spine bowed, and she looked as if she simply wanted to disappear. Figuring that she was either really upset at what she had just done or really embarrassed, he tried to alleviate her concerns. After all, she wasn't the first person in the world that had ever thrown him like that.

And she probably wouldn't be the last person to do it either.

Feeling his hand on the top of her head, she glanced at him for a moment as he ruffled her hair and said softly, "I should have knocked before walking in," He said again, trying to assure her that she hadn't really done anything wrong. "Especially given the shit that you've been through up until you wound up in a coma. I didn't mean to startle you. I just wanted to check in on you and see if you were okay and ask if you were planning to join the rest of us for dinner later."

She mulled over his words for a moment before nodding her head and he smiled at her and then dropped his hand before saying, "Great! I think we're going to have a few of your favorites for dinner tonight. And I made some time earlier today to make a couple dozen batches of cookies using you're late mom's recipe. And after dinner if you want, we'll watch some more The Walking Dead. Or if you would prefer, we could con Thor into another fighting tournament. I think you should defend your title- you know?"

She nodded again and he smiled again.

* * *

Bucky had been off ever since the meeting earlier with Tony. And though Steve had noticed, he hadn't been able to really say or do anything until the two of them were finally alone. Once they were shut away in Steve's living quarters, the blond had pretty much man handled the brunette over to his couch and then demanded to know what was wrong with him.

And the two of them had been going back and forth ever since about Tony's kid.

Bucky kept trying to point out that there was something off about the kid that could mean that she herself was a Winter's Soldier and Steve was getting more and more irked by the second.

Not because of Bucky's suspicions. No it was something else.

Something about how protective Tony acted towards the girl could easily be read as trying to help a fellow Winter's Soldier, Hydra, brainwashee. So it wasn't as if Bucky could be totally wrong here.

I mean, he'd been a Hydra assassin for the past seventy years, so it wasn't like he couldn't spot similar behaviors in others that had been in the same position as himself.

But at the same time, Steve couldn't really see Tony placing himself in such a position as to become a parent or something to someone- even a child/teenager- that had been hurt and used in such a way by Hydra.

It would be far too dangerous for him.

But at the same time... Tony _was_ being awfully tight lipped about the kid. So maybe Bucky's worries and concerns weren't completely unfounded?

But even if Bucky was right... Tony wasn't going to let them touch the kid. Steve knew him enough to know that with absolute certainty. So all any of them could really do right now was keep their eyes peeled and watch and observe maybe?

Sighing tiredly, Steve cast a look at his best friend and gave him a strained smile before then saying. "Alright. I believe you Buck. I guess, we'll just have to see if we can find something out about her at dinner." Was all that he could think to really say.

"I hardly doubt that Stark is actually going to tell us anything Steve. He...doesn't exactly trust any of us." Bucky said, watching his best friend flinch slightly before slowly saying.

"Well maybe if we can't get the information out of him, we can get it out of someone else."

It was a plan. A terrible one since there was no guarantee that anyone else would have the information that they were going for. And probably wouldn't give up the information without alerting Stark.

Still...it was a plan. And they had worked with far less.

So what was the worst that could happen?


	2. Chapter 2

By the time dinner time rolled around, Steve could tell that Bucky was feeling wound up tight. The stress of believing that another Winter's Soldier was freely wandering around- and not knowing anything about her or her supposed mission- was getting to him. Making him jumpy and stuff.

Even so, Bucky still went to great pains to make himself seem as normal as possible.

He took a shower, trimmed his whiskers, carefully combed his hair and pulled part of it back away from his face and even changed into a clean set of clothes before he joined Steve in walking to the common room where everything was probably either set up already, or damn close to it.

When the others started to show up and called out greetings, Bucky was careful to greet them back and tell a few jokes. Just anything to camouflage himself better, even in the presence of their friends.

This was something that he excelled at.

It was like watching his other persona Winter work.

It made Steve uncomfortable as hell, but he allowed it because Bucky needed to feel safe here. And if the kid really was another Winter's Soldier- nothing that Steve could _say_ or _do_ would make him feel safe- until the threat had been gauged and taken care of.

Walking into the common room together Steve and Bucky both almost froze at the weird scene in front of them.

There, setting the table was the girl. Still wearing the same cream colored sweater and jeans from before. Her feet were bare this time, and her hair was up in a top knot ponytail with only a few strands here and there falling around her pretty face.

She had some forks and such in her hands and were staring at them oddly as Bruce walked up behind her and gently took them from her and looked them over before huffing out a small laugh. "I see. So that's the problem here," He said before turning to Tony and calling out, "I think someone put something weird in the washing machine again. Ichigo's been practically glaring at the forks like their about to come alive and eat her!"

"She looks at a lot of things like that," Tony called back before then coming out of the kitchen carrying a couple of large bowls and muttering, "I just assumed that the glare thing was a normal occurrence for her."

The kid...Ichigo? was it, merely gave the two an annoyed look and walked off into the kitchen and returned a moment or so later with some new forks and started laying them out to be used.

Feeling several of the others brush by them.

Nat exchanged a glance with Clint and before either Bucky or Steve could so much as react, the two were making a beeline for the girl. At which point Sam muttered a low sounding, "Uh-Oh."

The two pretty much caged the kid in while her back had been turned.

And when she finally did turn around, she automatically pressed herself as tightly as she could against the back of one of the chairs to keep the two from touching her.

It was...an _odd_ reaction and yet perfectly understandable if Bucky was right about her.

Nat and Clint noticed the way she was pressing herself as far back as she could away from them and both smiled. "Hello, you're new here right?" Nat asked in a mock friendly manner.

The kid visibly bristled and made a fist, looking as if she were about to punch the woman in the throat when Bruce walked over and none too politely placed a hand on both of the spy's shoulders and _yanked_ them back away from the girl and growled, _"Stay the hell away from her."_ Before then reaching out and slipping his pinky finger around her own and using the small connection to drag her away from them.

The kid shot a few dark looks at them from over her shoulder but followed closely at Bruce's heels until he got her as far away from them as he could and then pulled out a chair at the table that was next to Tony's usual place and then seated her in it.

He knelt down in front of her for several moments and talked to her in a hushed tone as Tony and Thor reappeared from... Where the hell had they been again?

Bucky had thought that they had been close to the kitchen, still collecting food, but Thor hadn't been present at all when they had walked in.

"Friend Ichigo! It is good to see you again!" Thor boomed as he meandered over to the kid and ruffled her hair in an affectionate manner. "Friend Tony was just telling me that you will soon start your first year of university. I am proud of you. And friend Tony is as well." He said with a bright smile as he removed his hand from her head.

Neither Steve nor Bucky could really see her expression, but they got the impression that she was as happy to see Thor as he was to see her. Soon enough the food was laid out and everyone was seated.

Bruce made a point of seating himself between the kid and anyone that he didn't want near her (Nat and Clint) whereas Thor was seated across from the girl and Tony was on the other side of her. Shielding her from all sides. Vexing Bucky nearly to the point where he wanted to rip his hair out.

How was he supposed to get close enough to check her out and stuff if no one would let him? He wondered as Sam seated himself on the other side of Thor and smiled at the kid.

Perking up a little bit in his seat, his earlier feelings of vexation dwindled down a bit, though they didn't totally go away. Sam said hello to the girl, and everyone at the table noticed the weird stillness that Tony, Thor and Bruce adopted before Tony nodded his head at the kid, indicating that it was okay for her to talk to the man.

The girl nodded back at him with an nervous looking smile, curving her pale pink lips.

Sam asked her how she was liking things in the compound so far. Which was exactly am invasive question. And would be easy enough for her to respond too. However she didn't. Not verbally anyways.

She did however use sign language.

Something that Clint, Nat, and Bucky knew extensively. Sam seemed to understand it too. Because he watched her hands carefully as she signed._ "It's new. Nice. But new." _

Sam frowned for a moment before tentatively asking if she was deaf before then awkwardly trying to smooth over his mistake by telling her that it was fine if she was, there was nothing wrong with it- just a heads up would have been nice is all.

At which point the kid signed again. _"Not deaf. Throat was injured. Can't speak for a bit longer. Vocal chords damaged." _

"O-Oh. I-I'm sorry." Sam stuttered out, feeling bad for the kid.

Clint cast another look at Nat, noting that she looked kind of upset too. They hadn't been expecting the girl to be mute. Even if it was just temporary. Nor had they expected her to have been injured in some way. No wonder Tony, Bruce and Thor seemed to be so protective of her.

Bucky looked down at his plate for a moment, unsure if he wanted to proceed for the time being, however after taking a second to weigh the pros and cons, decided to keep going. The fact that the kid had been injured at some point and rendered mute just seemed to compound the mystery surrounding her.

The kid signed that he shouldn't be. It wasn't like he had hurt her.

"Okay, Ichigo that's enough for now," Tony said in a soft tone before going on to say, "If they have any more questions then they can direct them to me. In the meantime, let's get you and everyone else fed. I know that you have to be hungry since you haven't eaten in the past four days. And that has to be hell on you. Especially since your metabolism is faster than the Caps."

Bucky shot Steve a 'told ya' kind of look, causing the blond to curl his lips back from his teeth in a playful snarl. Letting the brunette know, that yes, he had heard. He was paying attention.

Dinner from there was a weirdly quiet affair.

Tony spoke in low tones to the kid, and Thor and Bruce would as well. Sam occasionally asked questions of them. But a few of them went unanswered. Things changed a little bit around dessert time when Tony brought out a couple of dishes of home made cookies and pies.

"Hey Cap, you and Frosty want some of these goodies?" Tony called out after he set a slice of pie on a plate with six or seven cookies.

"Yes please, if it isn't too much trouble."

"Alright, just a second." Tony said as he started to grab two of the untouched plates of pie and cookies but was stopped by the kid when she grabbed them first and pointedly looked at him until he sank down in his seat with a curious look on his face as she walked the length of the table and set one of the dishes down in front of Nat and Clint. Both of whom looked up at her startled a little bit before muttering their thanks.

Nat didn't just thank her, she called her _Angel_.

Embarrassing Ichigo a little bit if the soft pink blush was any indication at all as she made her way over to Steve and Bucky and set the other dish down.

"Thank you, Ichigo." Steve said politely, a small smile curving his lips. She nodded at him and cast a peculiar look towards Bucky who was simply frozen for the moment. His eyes taking in every detail of her appearance and behavior.

You know up close like this, the kid could have actually been a damned angel.

It was as if her very being was divine.

Feeling Steve elbow him in the ribs, he made a little yelping sound and glared at the punk as he grabbed a piece of pie and some cookies and started digging in before then turning back to the kid and giving her a kind smile and muttering a soft thank you.

She nodded at him and then turned to walk back to her seat, and as she did, her hair shifted just enough to give the two men a small glimpse of her throat. Steve damn near choked on what he had in his mouth, his eyes wide in horror as he made out the smallest traces of a red, raw and angry wound that went along her throat.

Parts of the wound were still stitched with black thread that held the injury across her jugular tightly closed.

Bucky found himself swallowing past the sudden lump in his throat as he noticed it.

No dame should have such a terrible wound. Much less something so damned _noticeable_. And before he even realized it he was on his feet and called out to the girl. She turned her head a little bit to look at him and he quickly signed the words,_ "Tell me they're dead. The one/ones that put that wound on your neck."_ It wasn't so much a question as it was a demand.

He truly wanted to know that they were dead. Because if not, maybe he could weasel the info on where to find them from Tony. He may no longer be the Winter's Soldier anymore but that didn't mean that his protective instincts were dead. If anything, seeing the scar had them clamoring to the surface faster than he could sort through them.

The kid lifted her hands and signed the words, _"They died screaming. I saw to it personally." _It was hard to miss the way that Sam, Nat and Clint all froze up as she signed the words in response to his words.

Bucky nodded, his expression grim and then slowly reseated himself as she walked back to her seat and sat back down.

A little while later once dinner was done, everyone stood up to leave as the kid collected the dirty dishes. Almost running into Clint and Bucky in her haste to collect them. She didn't bother to look at them much nor exchange any other words with them after that last bit. She instead just, hesitantly smiled at them and then quickly skirted around them to finish her task as Tony called out.

"Ichigo, don't bother. I'll take care of the dishes later. Come on and challenge Thor to another match already. He's all puffed up and arrogant over here!"

The girl paused for a moment to cast a funny look at the two men. It didn't go unnoticed that Thor looked more than a little bit lost for a second before quickly puffing out his chest and doing some weird pose to show off his muscles behind Tony.

Bruce laughed at the two and told them to stop acting like idiots as the girl merely set everything down for a moment and walked over to the two and gently brushed Tony aside while they all watched curiously as she stepped up to Thor and in a lightening quick move grabbed him and threw him over her shoulder and tossed him across the room.

He hit the floor at Steve and Bucky's feet and quickly jumped up and waved his fist around while saying, "Foul! I call foul! You did not warn me that you were going to attack!"

The girl signed that he was lucky she hadn't torn his hair out before she tossed him. He'd look awfully funny bald.

After which, Tony and Bruce all but fell over laughing as Thor skipped back up to the kid and promptly got tossed again. This time he hit the couch upside down and stayed there.

"I think it is safe to say that our young Valkyrie has won this round and defended her title." Thor said after a moment or so of hesitation before he too started laughing as Ichigo shook her head at them and huffed softly before turning to go back to her former task only to find that Bucky had already beaten her to it.

She blinked at him for a moment and looked around the table to make sure that nothing had been missed and started to reach out to take the heavy load from him when he said, "Come on doll, I'll help you with these since the others are such heathens as to let a little slip of a gal like you do the work for them."

She merely blinked up at him again and cast a nervous glance towards the others, but they weren't paying attention right now. Either that or they simply didn't see the threat in her getting help doing dishes from the man.

It was hard to say which. But after a moment or so she nodded her head and took some of the smaller items from him so that he wouldn't have to worry about dropping anything and motioned for him to head for the kitchen.


	3. Chapter 3

Bucky wasn't quite so sure anymore if he believed that she was another Winter's Soldier like he had been. He still had questions, sure. But he didn't really know what to think about the girl right now. So he figured that getting in good with her couldn't hurt things.

He might learn what he felt he needed to know about her, and who knew- maybe he'd make a new friend?

He followed her quietly into the kitchen and laid everything in his hands in the sink after she took a moment to plug it up so that they could fill it with water. It took a few minutes, and a small heated debate on who would wash and who would dry.

Bucky had been adamant about washing the dishes, and the kid had been equally adamant that he just dry them. Her argument had been that he's probably not really had any time to actually rest any- so he should just dry the dishes while she took care of the rest.

He'd say this about the little gal- she was stubborn as a damned mule and had absolutely no intention of backing down whatsoever. So Bucky, though he was loathe to admit it, was forced to dry the dishes while she washed them.

And he still would have been drying them if not for the fact that several moments later, she had cut herself on a really sharp knife and split her palm open.

She made a hissing sound as she pulled her hand out of the soapy water and Bucky just happen to glance over at her, a teasing question on the tip of his tongue when he saw the blood running from her palm down her arm and almost dropped the plate that he'd been drying off.

Quickly setting the dish aside, he grabbed her hand and put it under the tap to clean the soap and such off of it so that he could better access her wound and muttered a curse when he realized that she'd almost split her palm open damned near to the bone.

"Christ doll, you're going to need stitches." He said as he searched the drawers for a dry towel or something to wrap her hand in just as Bruce appeared. The man was still laughing at Thor for being beaten by a mere mortal girl.

Especially since the man generally didn't take defeat very well.

He was sort of like Tony in that regard.

Though it had been funny to see him damn near die of shock the first time that Ichigo had beaten him. She'd gotten pissed at him picking on her a bit about her being a warrior/pacifist and poking fun at her that she had snatched his hammer from him, and swung it at his head. Landing a solid blow to his jaw and dropping him like a bad habit.

He was unconscious for three days before waking up crying that Ichigo was fit to rule Asgard.

Bruce suspected that part of the reason that Thor stuck so close to her now was because he saw her as sort of an adopted sibling or something. He knew enough about her past to be incredibly _impressed_. Hell, they all did.

But Thor was different. He wasn't just impressed by her ability. He thought of her as a future ruler of Asgard. And had probably already taken painstaking steps to secure the throne for her if anything ever happened to him.

"Hey Ichigo, Thor and Tony are starting to compare battle scars. If you want to out do them again then you should-" Bruce's words quickly died as he took in the scene before him.

Ichigo's hand was tightly held in Barne's hand, and there was blood running down her hand to her arm. Some of it was even dripping on the floor. Barnes looked worried while Ichigo merely stood there looking...well..._uncomfortable_.

Finally shaking off his funk, Bruce quickly moved to where the two were standing and demanded to know what had happened. Barnes was quick to tell him that she had cut herself on one of the dishes as Bruce cast a questioning look at her.

Ichigo waited until Bucky had turned away to finish looking for a dry towel before she nodded her head. That _yes_, that was what had happened.

It alleviated _some_ of the man's concern that the former Hydra assassin had hurt her. After all, he knew enough about the girl to know that if Barnes had attacked her, she'd have killed him. And there wasn't anyone in the damned compound that would have been able to stop her.

Not even Steve or the Hulk.

Even without her previously documented abilities- the girl was hella _strong_ and almost inhumanly _vicious_ when she was crossed. So yeah, if Barnes had actually injured her- he'd be lying, broken and missing some limbs in a pool of his own blood right then.

"Let me see," Bruce said as he carefully took her hand away from Barnes before turning to him and telling him where the towels were. Barnes just nodded his head mutely, his anxious gaze going to Ichigo's face for a moment before he found the drawer that Bruce had just mentioned and finally managed to pull out a clean, dry towel and handed it to Bruce to tie around her hand. "Damn Ichi, you're going to need to make a trip to the infirmary for this." He said as he absently took the towel from Barnes hand and nodded to the man to thank him as he carefully wrapped and tied the towel around Ichigo's hand before then sighing and saying gently as he put his arm around her.

"Come on kid. Let's go and get you fixed up before Tony has a conniption fit."

Ichigo cast an apologetic look towards Bucky and quickly signed that she was sorry for the trouble. Barnes merely gave her a small smile and told her not to worry about it. He'd take care of the dishes for her.

After which she signed for him to watch the knives. They hurt like a bitch.

He just chuckled at her as Bruce forced her to move. Softly whispering in her ear that he could take care of himself, there was no reason for her to worry about him. Bucky couldn't agree more with the man, but caught the kid signing something along the lines of-_ "He's human. I worry."_ to the man before he tugged her out of the room.

Bucky may or may not believe that Ichigo was still a Winter's Soldier but he did know a few things from the small interactions that he'd had with her already.

She was an odd little dame.

Odd and...so, so very _strangely sweet_.

He didn't know what to do with such information besides hang onto it for the time being. He'd share what he knew with Steve once he was finished up washing the dishes and see what he thought.

* * *

Later that evening, after talking to Steve and getting his opinion.

The man had simply told him that if he still doubted that she wasn't a Winter's Soldier then they should continue to gather info on her. It wasn't like they were actually hurting anything by doing so. And they weren't going to use the information for any nefarious purposes.

Bucky agreed to that stipulation knowing that it was the right thing to do. Though he had told Steve that whether she was a Soldier or not, he'd like to try and be her friend.

Steve had merely smiled at him and told him that he was a nice guy. Bucky had flushed with embarrassment and hit the blond in the face with a pillow causing his punk to practically belly roll on the floor while he had stammered out all kinds of things about him for embarrassing him.

Later into the night, long after Steve had gone to bed. Bucky couldn't sleep any. So he got up, slipped some slippers on and quietly left the room to go to the gym. Once he figured out where it was that is.

Starks newest A.I was not the least bit helpful.

Sassy yes, helpful- not so much.

It took a little bit of sweet talking on his end before the stupid thing would even tell him where to go. Something that he suspected was going to be a trend given how the new A.I was based on a dame.

_Stupid Stark._ He thought darkly as he prowled the hallways on his way to his destination. One of these days he was going to treat the man like a dirty carpet. He'd even hang him out a window and beat him.

Upon reaching the gym, due to the lateness of the hour, he'd expected to be alone. However once he walked in, he paused in the doorway for several second as he spied the kid going at a punching bag.

Studying her for a few moments while he was still undetected, he noted that she was slamming the bag with so much force that it was starting to rip and tear. Not only that, but she had one _hell_ of a left and right hook. But that wasn't all that he noticed about her.

Aside from the fact that she was using her injured hand, and was knocking the hell out of the punching bag. He also took note of what she was wearing. She wasn't wearing normal gym clothes.

She was wearing a sleeveless navy colored wife beater and some red flannel pants.

What got his attention more than anything though, was the deep, jagged pink scars that he could plainly see running along her shoulder, her bicep, forearm and the back of her hand.

Those weren't normal scars.

Those were combat scars from fighting against someone with a really big, really, _really_ sharp blade. He couldn't see where the scar at her shoulder ended, because it ran underneath her shirt. But he had a sneaky suspicion that he probably wouldn't like it if he knew.

On top of that when she turned her back to him so that she could do a few roundhouse kicks, he could see the back of her neck was covered in old scars too. They also seemed to disappear underneath the fabric of her shirt where he suspected more scars were hidden.

Muttering a foul oath underneath his breath, he fisted his hands tightly at his sides and wondered idly who the fuck had done such a thing to her. Before his mind shirted to-_ If I ever catch whoever did it- I'll bury the bastards. _

He stayed where he was until she sent the punching bag flying off of the chain holding it up, and it crashed to the floor a good fifty feet away where it hit the floor and tore open. The sand that had filled it, spilling out.

She just stood there for a moment, with her arms at her sides, her face devoid of any emotion before tuning to go and grab another bag when he quietly walked up to her.

She turned so quickly that he almost got punched in the face before he could even catch her hand. But he managed and the two of them stood there like that for a second or so, staring wide eyed at each other before she hesitantly pulled her hand away and quickly signed, _"I'm sorry. Didn't know that you were here."_

It was a lame excuse for an apology if he'd ever heard one.

"You always throw punches with people who come up behind you?"

She frowned at him and signed, _"No. Sometimes I throw people." _

"Really? Like you threw Thor earlier?" He asked curiously.

She shrugged her slender shoulders and then signed, _"Sure, let's go with that." _

"How long have you been here?"

_"Long enough to go through five bags_." She signed.

He looked at her incredulously before asking. "Really? You've already gone through five bags?"

She shrugged again and then signed,_ "That was the sixth. I think I'm ready to call it a night." _

He nodded in understanding as he grabbed the new bag and hung it up as she started to make her way over to the torn one before saying, "I'll get it kid. You go ahead and get some rest." She paused in mid step and looked back at him from over her shoulder for a second. Her teeth worrying her bottom lip as she mulled over his words before curtly nodding.

She signed a quick, _"Thank you."_ Followed by,_ "But this is the last time you clean up after me, got it." _

"Sure kid. Sleep tight." He said as she started to walk past him and gave him a little wave before heading out of the gym.

* * *

The next morning everyone began to gather in the common room practically at the crack of dawn. Bucky had been up almost all damned night working out some of his nervous energy in the gym while mentally going over the prior days events.

Once he left there, he returned to his room to grab a quick shower and pull on some clean clothes before joining Steve and everyone else.

He had assumed, much like the others, that only Bruce and Tony would be up and about.

However he was wrong.

No one was up as of yet. At least not according to that damned A.I. who flirtatiously greeted him as _babelicious_, much to Bucky's horror and Steve's utter amusement seeing as he made kissy noises at him, while Clint sang with a gleeful grin, "Bucky and Friday sitting in a tree-" and got a quick smack to the back of the head before laughing as he walked off.

"Bastards. Just you wait until the A.I flirts with you. I'mma going to laugh my ass off!"

Everyone snickered at him and went about their morning routines of fixing breakfast for everyone and making coffee since Tony practically lived off of the stuff.

Clint grabbed a bowl of cereal seeing as he didn't want to wait for the bacon and other stuff to finish cooking and went to sit on the couch and let out a startled yelp and dropped his bowl when he found that the couch was already occupied.

"Clint? What's wrong?" Steve asked as soon as the man jumped away from the couch looking like he was about to have a heart attack.

Clint took a moment to calm himself by taking a breath or two to calm his nerves before saying, "It's Tony's kid. She's asleep here."

"What?" Bucky asked as he got up from his chair at the table and wandered over to the couch to see for himself. Sure enough, there was Ichigo sprawled out on the couch on her back. She must have not been able to sleep even after she had left the gym.

She also looked like she had showered at some point, because she was wearing a whole different set of clothing. This time she had a matching long sleeved green and blue flannel shirt and matching pants on. There was a towel underneath her head and her long hair was fanned out around her head and shoulders.

She had one hand thrown up over the arm of the chair and one of her feet dangling off of the edge. She didn't look the least bit comfortable at all. And yet she was totally dead to the world.

"Hn. S-Should we try and move her?" Clint wondered aloud when Friday chimed in,

_"I wouldn't. Miss Boss doesn't like being touched by people that she doesn't know. Even in her sleep, she'd hurt you."_

"Is that so?" Clint mused more to himself than the A.I. and she chimed in with an affirmative before bothering to mention that Tony was on his way to get her.

Clint merely made a humming sound and took a bite of his cereal as Tony walked through the door and made a beeline for the girl. Ichigo didn't stir so much as she cracked an eye open for a moment to glare at them as Tony carefully picked her up in his arms and then quietly left the room again.

Making several of the others frown a little bit before Bruce showed up a little bit later to get himself some breakfast. When asked why the kid had been sleeping on the couch and stuff, the man had merely said that she'd probably sleep walked or something.

And then mentioned an incident where she had nearly sleepwalked off of the roof about a month after her arrival. Which confused them a bit since they thought that she had only arrived at the compound a week or so before they had.

Bruce quickly told them that Ichigo had been present at the compound for nearly a year and some odd months. She merely had been- _resting_. It was weird how he had said the word 'resting' though they knew that he was hinting at something just as Tony had the previous day with his word 'awakened'.

Once he left, Thor made his appearance and made a beeline for the box of pop-tarts that he had carefully hidden in the cabinet over the fridge.

At which point Bucky had asked curiously, "Hey Thor..." The blond hummed around a bite of frosted strawberry and looked at him. "C-Could you tell us a little bit about Tony's kid?"

Taking a moment to swallow what was in his mouth- because apparently talking with one's mouth full of food was not only gross, but very rude- he took a moment to ask in a questioning tone as if he needed some sort of confirmation. "You speak of the young Valkyrie?"

Bucky nodded and said, "Yeah. Ichigo."

Thor took a moment to consider his question as he set his food aside and then crossed his arms and asked, "What is it you wish to know?"

Seeing this as maybe his one and only chance to figure out what she was. Bucky seized it. "Is she a Winter's Soldier like I was?"

Steve made a weird sound and almost dropped the frying pan full of scrambled eggs that he'd been cooking as everyone else froze up and literally turned their heads as one and began to carefully pay attention to the conversation.

"No. She is not a Winter's Soldier," Thor said after a heartbeat or two before then tacking on, "But she is something else. Something superhuman and old."

"A mutant?" Sam asked as he wandered over to stand beside Bucky. Thor shook his head slowly.

"No."

"An alien?" Clint chimed in.

Thor snorted before saying, "Only you would think a _child_ an alien, friend Clint."

"Well if she isn't an alien, and she isn't an mutant or a Soldier like Bucky was; but she's something old and superhuman- then what is she?"

"It is...hard to say. Even I do not know much about her."

_"Oh."_ Bucky and Sam said in unison, their tones dripping with disappointment.

"I can tell you what I _do_ know though. I doubt she nor friend Stark will truly mind." Thor offered kindly. The two perked up almost instantly and gave him their undivided attention. "The Valkyrie, Ichigo, is a unique being to this world. She was born human- of that I am absolutely certain. Both of her parents were human, though I have heard that they were also special. They were brought together by a mad man who wanted to know what their offspring would be like. So he used them as a sort of experiment."

"He killed her mother when Ichigo was seven. From what little bit she has told us, her mother was walking her home and they were both attacked. Ichigo was rendered unconscious and her mother was slain and thrown on top of her. She told us that she never saw who it was or what happened, she just remembered waking up pinned beneath something heavy and the world was _red_ like blood. Poor child, it probably didn't occur to her that she was covered in her mother's blood until later." Thor muttered before sighing and going on to say.

"Her father was former military. A Captain much like Steve and after the death of her mother, began training her as one would a son. He didn't care if she was a girl- he discouraged her from acting and dressing and learning the fundamental things that make a young girl."

"She was not allowed to act as a female. She was not allowed to cry when she was hurt- if she did... Her father would discourage her from doing so again by hurting her. The first time she developed a crush- he broke her arm and dragged her by the hair to a closet and locked her inside of it where she was forced to stay for days without proper treatment nor food or water."

There was several sharp intake's of breath among those listening. But no one said anything so Thor continued speaking.

"She has not said much beyond that. Merely that it continued for a time. Until she was a little bit older and she almost broke his neck during a training session. After that he stopped training her. She was attacked by people a lot. She often wound up injured. She finally made some friends when she was about...what was it now? Ah yes, she said that she made some real friends when she finally reached Junior High."

"She was an _excellent_ student. The top of her class. She made some nice friends who taught her the difference between fighting for the sake of others and abuse. They were kind to her. And she always tried to be kind to them as well. And then something happened when she was fourteen... Her home and her family was attacked. One of her sisters was injured and the other was going to be killed. So she went to save her. I'm not sure what happened after that. She was somewhat vague."

"She did mention that she had to _lie_ a lot to protect people. Mostly when it came to herself and what she had to do. She said that the military got involved at some point several months after the first attack. One of her friends was taken on charges that were fake. She was going to be executed. Ichigo was badly injured trying to stop her from being taken- she almost died. Once she was well again she went after her friend with some others in tow."

"They wound up waging all out war against the military and it's most elite. The young Valkyrie got severely injured several times, but made friends with everyone that she beat. It took a little bit of doing and some very careful planning, but she and her other friends were finally able to save the friend that was taken and get the government to drop the charges against her and then they returned home. They...wound up crossing paths with the madman that had experimented with her parents on several occasions."

"I know little else about what happened per occasion, but on the last one... Her family and some of her friends were murdered by him. And Ichigo was so badly injured during the fight that she lost her eyes, her heard was shredded, one of her arms was completely severed at the shoulder- I do not know the full list of injuries, but I do know that she had several surgeries already while she was in a coma. It was almost eight months ago when friend Tony received a call form the very military people who had once been her enemies. They...asked him to bring the young Valkyrie here to heal, and to hide her. She awakened from her coma barely two months ago and is still healing."

Everyone was quiet for a moment as they mulled over his words before Sam asked, "Hey wait, if she's only been awake for two months... What happened to her throat? I mean, that wound cant be over a year old."

"A doctor- He was mentally ill and during a routine check-up tried to kill her one day almost a month ago. Friend Tony was most beside himself when it happened. He really did think that the fool had managed to kill her."

"And she killed the guy?" Clint asked as he took another bite of his cereal.

Thor grinned at them, the grin was more feral looking than amused. It was a chilling smile. One that turned one's blood to ice as he murmured. "Oh yes. She did. And he_ died_ screaming. I suppose that it was simply one of those instances where she put her father's training to use. It was quite messy." And then started to pick up his discarded box of pop-tarts so that he could continue eating as Ichigo shuffled into the room.

"Friend Valkyrie! Greetings to you this fine morn!"

The girl paused just long enough to scan the room and then quickly turned around and scampered back out of it again. Thor's smile dimmed considerably with that action and he sighed and set his food aside again and quietly excused himself from their presence.


	4. Chapter 4

It was three more days before anyone saw any hint of Ichigo. And the only reason that they managed to see her this time was because Tony was dragging her out the front door of the compound. Bucky and Steve had just returned from running some laps when they saw the two heading for one of Tony's cars.

"Hey you two! What are you doing?" Steve called out curiously.

After the talk Thor had had with them, Steve had come to the conclusion that the kid _needed_ some serious watching. Not so much because a branch of a government and military group had contacted Tony, but more because none of them knew what the hell she was.

And Thor had said that she was _superhuman_. Though none of them had really seen any evidence of it beyond the way she had tossed Thor around like a rag doll after dinner the first night there.

Tony paused his...herding? of Ichigo and turned to yell back, "Taking the kid out. She's starting to go stir crazy!"

"Getting cabin fever huh?" Steve asked as he jogged over to the two before stopping several inches from them. Bucky following closely at his heels.

"Well, there's a little bit more to it than that." Tony said as he glanced over at the kid. Ichigo was looking as if she'd rather be gnawing off her hand instead of going into town with him. But today she simply didn't have much of a choice.

Today, they were going dress shopping for the upcoming gala, where he would formally introduce her to the world as his kid. However Ichigo was nothing but a tomboy at heart and was already planning to make his day of dress shopping _difficult_.

"I'm planning a gala in another four days or so where I'm going to formally introduce Ichigo to the world as my kid," Tony explained as he reached out and placed his hand on top of her head and ruffled her neat and tidy hair style causing her to curl her lips back from her teeth and snarl at him. "I've already informed Nat so she's supposed to help the rest of you get prepared since I'll have to reintroduce all of you as well."

Steve's expression was closed off for a second or so before he smiled and just said, "Monkey suits?"

Tony nodded his head soberly and echoed his words. "Monkey suits."

Bucky could already feel himself beginning to chafe in weird places at the very idea of wearing a damned suit and had to squash the urge to actually scratch himself in someplace..._ungentlemanly_ while in the presence of the kid. After all, she was a dame. A young and impressionable one, but one nevertheless.

And guys were _never_ meant to scratch themselves in weird places in front of dames.

They were supposed to wait until they were under the cloak of darkness, behind closed doors that were hopefully locked- where they could drop trough and scratch their balls or asses all they wanted without embarrassing either themselves or any pretty gals.

Was it weird that this was the _only_ advice that he ever recalled his dad actually giving him? He wondered idly as Tony suddenly suggested, "Hey why don't the two of you come with us? I'm sure that I'll need the extra help in herding this young-in along. I can already tell that she's making escape plans to ditch me."

Steve let out a rumbling laugh and then glanced over at him and said, "If Buck doesn't mind helping you herd the little one then I see no problem."

"Cool. And for your hard work- and it will be hard- the damned kid practically turns into a ghost when clothes shopping with me. I'll throw in lunch at any place of your choosing."

"Sounds good." Steve said before turning to him again and giving him a look. Not just any look. But the are-you-in-or out-look. Bucky knew that look all too well. Steve had gotten that look after he'd become Captain America.

That look meant all kinds of mischief that he wanted to drag him into.

Bucky caved like a frigging house of cards. Sighing softly as he nodded his agreement as Steve clapped his hands together and quickly asked if Tony would mind if they took ten minutes to shower and change their clothes.

Tony told them that he'd make them chase the car if they took longer than that. So while they headed inside to do just that, they had to pause for a moment when they heard Tony shout, "Hey! Get back here you hooligan!" And turned just in time to see that the kid had somehow managed to scamper up a tree thirty feet away from the front of the building and was tossing pine cones at Tony's head as Bucky muttered in disbelief.

"_Wow_, she really hates clothes shopping with him, huh."

Steve just laughed at the absurdity of the scene and wrapped an arm around his shoulders and led him back inside to do what they needed to do before Tony decided to shoot the kid out of the tree with one of his Iron Man gloves.

They were back downstairs within the allotted timeframe, both of them wearing clean clothes, their hair somewhat dripping wet and found Tony bent over at the waist panting hard with a length of rope in his hands.

Looking around they found the kid sitting in the back of the vehicle, tied by another piece of rope and glaring _mutinously_ at the whole lot of them. "Tony are you-"

"I'm fine. Just...get in the car..." Tony said between pants as the two men exchanged a glance with each other and promptly did as the smaller man commanded. Sliding into place on either side of the girl who looked none too happy to have been caught and tied up like an old fashioned Scooby-Doo villain.

Once everyone was in the car, Tony started the vehicle and cast a look at the kid from the mirror in the front and started yammering on and on about how she would be on her best behavior as Steve kindly waited until they were on the road before carefully untying her so that she wouldn't hurt herself struggling to get free.

The second that she was free, she nodded at him to thank him while rubbing the soreness from her wrists.

The rest of the ride into town was uneventful. Quiet and calm. Something that neither men had really been expecting given the fact that they were riding with Tony. The man usually had a habit of being loud, and playing eardrum splitting old music that made absolutely no sense to either man whatsoever.

But today, he played his radio low. The music was something unexpected.

Eighties and nineties music.

There was no rap, nothing that could make anyone's eardrums bleed. It was shocking to say the least. But not nearly as shocking as when the kid somehow managed to doze off and fell sideways onto Steve's shoulder and didn't move again until the end of the trip where Tony finally parked the car and looked in the mirror again to see what she was doing and then grinned and said triumphantly, "Ha! Get's her every time."

Causing both men to exchange another glance with each other as the kid jerked herself awake and rubbed the sleep from her eyes as Tony got out of the car, followed by Steve and Bucky. It took a few minutes of coaxing to get Ichigo out.

But the soldiers suspected that that had more to do with her still being somewhat asleep than simply being stubborn.

Tony seemed to think so too since he was calm and not shouting at her. Instead the moment that she slide herself out of the car, he simply took her small hand in his and placed it on his arm and just told her to stay close to one of them at all times.

No pulling Houdini acts and disappearing into thin air.

Ichigo didn't really seem as if she were listening. But then it didn't really matter, as Tony led them up to the door of a very posh looking clothing shop before turning to the two of them and telling them that they could probably find their own clothes there.

They could do that while he helped the kid find a dress.

The two said nothing as they all entered the shop. There really wasn't a whole lot to say at the moment as a sales woman came up to them all and greeted them politely. Tony told her what the lot of them were looking for, earning a smile from the woman as she reached out and started to take Ichigo by the hand when Tony stopped her by grabbing her wrist and simply saying that the kid didn't like being touched by strangers.

Bucky glanced over at the girl and noted for the first time that she was tense. Her muscles tightly coiled as if she were just looking for an excuse to lash out.

He narrowed his eyes at her for a moment as the woman nodded her head in acceptance of Tony's explanation and apologized for her mistake before then motioning for Tony and the kid to follow her while another woman came to help them.

She really needn't have bothered. Steve would have the two of them monkey suits picked out in no time flat and would probably spend the rest of their time in the store just meandering here and there looking at the merchandise.

Bucky would probably go and see how things were going with Tony just in case he needed a hand.

Sure enough, barely ten minutes later, Steve had handed the sales lady their suites and the horrible strangulation devices made to look suspiciously like neckties over, and had wandered off to check out the rest of the store. Leaving Bucky to his own devices.

Meandering back to where Tony was standing, propped up against the wall outside of one of the dressing rooms, Bucky joined him. Leaning his back against the wall and crossing his arms as he asked how it was going. The man made a strained sound in the back of his throat- which was probably more telling than anything that he could have said.

"Come on Ichigo, I need to see how you look before we can choose a dress and then look for some accessories." Tony said after a heartbeat or so of silence. The kid threw open the fitting room door and stomped out of the room wearing an off the shoulder style dress that fell down to her knees in ruffles.

She looked, ridiculous. And pissed.

Bucky suspected that it had something to do with the fact that the damn dress showed far too much skin. Tony merely hummed and motioned for her to do a little spin, causing her to gnash her teeth and hiss at them both like a cat before wheeling around and storming back into the fitting room as Tony sighed and muttered, "It's going to be a long day Barnes."

Bucky couldn't have agreed more.


	5. Chapter 5

It took the better part of two in a half hours to find Ichigo a decent dress. Though Bucky would certainly admit that she had looked damn _stunning_ in everything that she had tried on. His favorites were the white sweetheart neckline, knee length dress. The slinky little black dress with a slit up the right side of the skirt.

And of course the _gorgeous_ red ankle length statin dress that clung fetchingly to her body like a second skin.

All of which, Tony had decided to get before he wandered off to check out the shoe and accessories selection. He found Ichigo some nice pearls and diamonds to wear.

They were small and simple pieces.

Both had necklaces, bracelets, and of course some pretty little dangle earrings.

And Bucky figured that the pieces were..._nice_ enough though they weren't the nicest that Tony could have gotten her. Still, he got them anyways after explaining to him that Ichigo would throw an even worse fit on him if he spent more than a few thousand on her, than she had when she had climbed the tree.

He then went on to explain that aside from clothing and neccessities, he wasn't _allowed_ to spend much of anything on her at all unless it was for a special occasion.

So despite the pieces of jewelry being far cheaper than his usual stuff- he figured that she would appreciate them far more than the more pricy stuff.

Besides, all together both jewelry sets cost him barely eight hundred dollars.

And though Ichigo seemed somewhat annoyed by the price. There was no denying the small smile that curved her lips as she turned her back on them and wandered away to look at some hair crystal studded barrettes before Tony saw what she was doing, and quickly abandoned Bucky and walked over to the display that had her attention and started grabbing some of them along with some cute clips and some other stuff.

By the time they all finally left the shop, Tony had weaseled Steve into loading the car up while he somehow managed to con Ichigo into wearing one of the hair barrettes and the pearl earrings that he'd bought for her so that he could see how they looked on her.

By the time Steve was done loading up the trunk of the car with their things and rejoined them, he quickly adopted the same slack jawed look that Bucky had on his face while Tony teasingly fawned over the girl.

With the earrings on and her hair up, Ichigo looked more pretty than a picture.

So much so that once Bucky managed to recover from his 'slack jawed' expression, he then turned and started to scan the side walk for something. Tony finally noticed after several moments of teasing the kid mercilessly and making her blush before asking the man what he was doing.

Bucky's answer was simple.

He was looking for a nice sturdy stick. Because they were obviously going to need one before they got back to the compound later to beat a bunch of boys off of her.

Tony laughed at the man's concern for his kid's chastity? But Steve didn't. He knew that Bucky was probably right. The girl was too damned pretty for her own good. So once he managed to pull the disappointed man away from, the strangely bare side walk- for god's sake there were trees everywhere! Where the hell were the fucking _sticks_?! Steve made a deal with Bucky that if anyone came anywhere near Ichigo- they take the hormone driven little punk out behind a building and take care of him.

Of couse, Bucky's idea of taking care of hormone driven teenage boy's and Steve's were vastly different.

Bucky was already thinking of dumping places for all of the 'future' corpses and Steve was thinking something along the lines of a sound tongue lashing.

Tony thought that the two were being totally absurd... Until they started to get in the car and a group of nice looking boys noticed Ichigo and started to yell cat calls at her. Mortifying the poor girl while it pissed Tony off so badly that he handed Steve the keys to his car, claiming that if he drove- he'd likely run the randy little bastards down.

Steve reluctantly took the keys as Tony shot the little fuckers a dark look and then slid into the car next to Ichigo and slipped an protective arm around her slender shoulders and glowered at the back of Steve's head the whole time that the man was driving.

Meanwhile Bucky sat half twisted around in his seat, staring out of the back window, glaring _murderously_ at the punks that had dared to cat call at the kid. His mind already going over plans to hunt them down later and teach them some manners. As Tony finally suggested that they go and get something to eat.

Steve was all for it because high stress situations tended to make him anxious and stress eat. Bucky didn't mind one way or the other. He wasn't terribly hungry at the moment.

But he figured that Tony and the kid might be.

So after several moments of debate, Steve was finally pulling over and parking the car again several blocks away from where they had shopped, just outside of a nice looking eatery. He shifted slightly in his seat, casting a wary glance towards Ichigo as she took her hair down and used her fingers to muss her hair a little bit.

Maybe she thought that if her hair was down and looked a little bit messy it would take away some of her appeal.

She was wrong. _Dead wrong_.

He could already see people pausing on the street to look at them. And he was pretty sure that more than half of them weren't expensive car enthusiasts. Steve was out of the car in record time.

Whereas he, Tony and Ichigo were much slower for obvious reasons.

The crowd surrounding them multiplied as he and Steve and Tony got out of the car. It tripled as Ichigo climbed out and took a moment to look around wide eyed at everyone surrounding them before quickly ducked behind him to hide herself.

Bucky mentally cursed at the crowd off lookers on and gently reached back and captured one of her hands in his and tugged her out from behind him and slid an arm around her shoulders and whispered in her ear to relax. If anyone tried to touch her, he'd break their arm.

Carefully using himself to shield her from the on lookers as he maneuvered her into the restaurant, and paused only briefly to check and see if Steve and Tony could manage to get by everyone. And upon making sure that they had, waited to be seated as they joined them.

"This is a nice place." Steve said offhandedly as he looked around at the classy vintage style furnishings and crystal chandelier's that hung from the ceiling. Bucky made a non committal sound as he scanned the place too.

It was a nice place.

It had a neat, and nostalgic feel to it that helped him to relax a little bit as a hostess walked up and finally greeted them. After asking if they were together, she grabbed four menu's for them and led them over to a nice table in the middle of the room where they all took a seat and began looking over the menu to see what they wanted.

Ichigo found a seafood platter type thing with a little bit of everything from a lobster tail, some crab, deep fried oysters, clams, and large and small shrimp. The meal came with fries, a side soup and an option of a side salad and a sweet tea.

Tony got a really expensive cheese burger and a diet coke.

Bucky and Steve both decided to order the same thing. Steak, and a double helping of fries and a coke. Due to the price of the stuff on the menu, neither man felt all that comfortable with eating their usual amount of food. Regardless of the fact that Tony had insisted on paying for their meals.

While they were sitting there waiting on their meals, a tall guy with long-ish mid back length dark hair walked in with several people on his heels. Tony cast a curious look in his direction to make sure that the guy wasn't one of the local paparazzi.

He wasn't. Though Tony recognized him as an Arabic prince that was visiting the city. He didn't exactly recall the reason _why_ though. So he dismissed him and turned his attention back to the others.

Steve and Bucky were talking in low tones and Ichigo was simply propped up with her chin in her hand, watching the two go back and forth with a small smile as the Arab guy walked up to their table. Startling the three men into silence as he said happily, "Mr. Stark! I thought that that was you. I did not know that I would be seeing you here today. And you've brought guests! Captain America-" Steve gave the guy a strained smile to be polite. "And the former Soldier and...well, well, who is this lovely little one?" He asked as his attention turned to Ichigo.

Her eyes flickered to him for a second and then away again. Obviously not caring much for him. And so she had decided to ignore him.

The man visibly bristled at being dismissed by her and tightly fisted his hands at his sides as Tony started speaking to him, "Prince Alim, how are you finding the city this fine day?" His tone was kept carefully polite and controlled despite his obvious dislike of the man.

The prince smirked at him and told him that eh found the city well. Not quite as pleasing as he found his home, but not everything could be perfect. His dark eyes strayed to Ichigo time and again over the next few minutes before he finally asked why she was allowed to dismiss him. Did Tony not intend to put the girl in her place?

Tony, Bucky and Steve bristled at the man's impudence as Tony explained to him that women had rights in america. And she had the right to dismiss him if she so pleased.

This didn't seem to go over well with the man if his expression was anything to go by. However he masked his annoyance easily enough before reaching out to take a strand of her hair in his hand.

Ichigo moved so quickly that her hand was a blur, the knife in her hand nothing more than a flash of silver as she saw the strand off and then moved back into her original position. If not for the fact that Steve and Bucky had actually been able to see her move, even the smallest bit- they would have merely assumed that she had never moved a muscle at all.

The prince stared at the strand of her hair that had suddenly come off in his hand, carefully examining the sawed off tips before then asking something that damned near had Tony frothing at the mouth as he leapt out of his seat. His expression one of barely concealed rage.

Steve and Bucky felt the same way.

I mean, how _dare_ the man all but demand that Tony give Ichigo to him as a concubine. It would have been less insulting to have him ask for her as a wife. But a_ concubine!_

The word itself had all three men practically seething with rage as the prince went on to explain that for the insult of dismissing him, Tony should give Ichigo to him as a concubine where she would spend the rest of her life as his personal whore and plaything.

He even went on to say that he might have to share her with his father and brothers, but it wasn't like her opinion on the matter would mean much to them. They liked breaking women.

It was at this point that Bucky grabbed the girl out of her seat and practically crushed her against his chest as he snarled out, "Ya ain't touching my fiancée." Causing Steve and Tony both to stare at him as if he were unhinged for a moment before catching on and then telling the man to go fuck himself.

He wasn't touching the kid. _Ever_.

However the man simply couldn't take a hint and reached out to touch Ichigo again. Causing Barnes to growl at him like a feral animal as he tensed up to grab him, but was forced to stop whatever he planned when Ichigo decided that she'd had enough shit from the bastard and flat out decked the prince and sent him crashing into another table several feet away before he fell to the floor unconscious.

"I-Ichigo!" Steve sputtered in disbelief at her audacity. Punching someone who was a prince of a foreign country could have serious repercussions that could come back to bite them all in the ass later. However the girl didn't seem to care, she just glowered at him and signed that- _"No, means no. And he needed to sit his butt down."_

She'd had enough of sexist pigs for one day, thank you very much.

Tony just sighed at the present debacle that he'd found himself in since adopting her and lifted his hand up in the air and asked, "Can we get our food to go please?" He didn't want to stick around any longer than he absolutely had too.


	6. Chapter 6

Ichigo was strangely absent once they returned to the compound an hour or so later. I mean, she took her food and then just sort of Houdinied herself elsewhere. It might have been considered cool if it wasn't quite so disconcerting to the two men.

Tony however didn't seem overly bothered by her sudden disappearing act. When asked where she had gone off too he merely mentioned a room. Not her room. _A room_. Which could have meant any number of things from a panic room, a hidden, indoor club house ext.

But since Tony didn't seem bothered by it...the two left the matter alone figuring that Tony probably knew where she was and that she needed some space for the time being given what had happened while they had been out.

Steve was still freaking out over her _hitting_ a prince.

Tony wasn't as bothered as Steve was. But he was sort of upset about the incident. Whereas Bucky had tried to get Steve to let him out of the car several times on the way back- he'd figured that he could go and make the guy disappear without anyone being the wiser.

Of course Steve and Stark both knew what he was up too. So he didn't get his way. _The fuckers._

And while he might be getting a lecture from his punk later on the virtues of 'not killing' people- even_ if_ they do deserve it. Tony had been another story entirely.

He had quietly thanked him. And then asked if he would be needing the services of a really, really good lawyer.

Steve had damn near ripped the steering wheel out of the car, he'd been so _irked_. He'd even gone so far as to lecture Tony on _not_ enabling him. Tony's response to his lecture had been a totally unrepentant, "But I am an enabler. I enable people. How else would I be entertained?" That had made Bucky laugh despite the seriousness of things.

Steve had growled and seethed the rest of the way home.

So now here they were, just walking into the common room where everyone was standing around with their eyes glued to the TV. Their expressions somewhere along the lines of 'uh-oh' and 'oh shit'. Giving the three men pause as they made their way further into the room where Tony happened to glimpse at the TV and find a news story about Prince Alim being struck by Ichigo. After being refused payment for her insult to his person.

The reporter doing the story then went on to say that Barnes had snarled at the man that he couldn't have his fiancee. At which point Bucky paled and stared at the TV wide eyed as a pic of him tightly holding the kid in his arms and looking all kinds of _pissed off_ flashed across the screen.

Everyone turned their heads to look at the three as Tony sputtered in disbelief as everyone looked at the three of them wide eyed. Finally after a moment or so, Tony turned to Bucky and pointed at him and shouted, "_You!_ I blame you for this!" Bucky's jaw dropped open in shock as Steve took several steps towards Natasha. Probably thinking that he could use her as a meat shield or something. "You did this! You spread that story about being engaged to my baby girl!"

Bucky's mouth finally snapped shut and he let out a loud animalistic growl of annoyance. "Don't you dare blame this on me! I'm not the one who caught that stupid man's interest!"

"You can't blame Ichigo for that! She ignored him for a reason!"

"Yeah- to piss him off!" He snapped at the smaller man.

"You can't blame a sixteen year old girl for having fucking taste!" Tony snarled at him.

"Like hell I can't!" Bucky roared back.

"That's like blaming her for being pretty! It's stupid and narrowminded of you!"

"Well why the hell haven't you fixed the damned problem?!"

"Huh?"

"Why have you even let her outside without a chastity belt and fucking bodyguards? Have you seen how she looks? I mean_ really_ seen? She's so damn pretty my eyes hurt from long term exposure!"

tony sputtered in outrage for a moment before suddenly screaming, "Thor! Bruce! Protect Ichigo's innocence!" Followed by, "Friday, call Rhodey- No, call Pepper- _No, call Happy, Rhodey and Pepper! _If Barnes thinks he can blame my baby girl for this shit then he's going to be in a mess of trouble!"

"Right away boss..." Friday said cheerfully before adding in an apologetic tone, "Sorry babe."

At which point Tony roared, "You _womanizing_ bastard! My little girl isn't enough for you- you have to flirt with my A.I too!"

"Are you crazy?" Demanded to know, apparently wondering about his sanity.

"Crazy like a fox- _hiss_!" Tony shouted back before attacking Bucky while everyone else present watched the two with a mixture of amusement, horror and dread as Tony knocked Bucky off of his feet and the two hit the floor yelling and screaming and rolling around raising all kinds of hell.

* * *

Ichigo was hiding out in her club house room. Quietly munching on her dinner when Thor walked in dragging Bruce behind him a little bit.

Looking over at them, a piece of shrimp partially sticking out of her mouth, she gave them a questioning look as Thor grinned at her and gently said, "Friend Tony asked us to protect you're virtue while he and friend Barnes try to kill each other."

She blinked at him, uncertain if she had heard him right and signed for him to repeat what he'd just said.

Thor just grinned even more and slowly retold her everything that he'd just said. And then launched into the story that started it causing the girl to gnash her teeth around the shrimp and made a low growling sound before deciding that she didn't want to know what the hell had possessed her guardian and the soldier.

It was they're mess, they could either kill each other or clean their shit up themselves.

* * *

A little while later both Bucky and Tony lay sprawled out on the floor side by side, Bucky was breathing just fine due to his super soldier-ness whereas Tony was panting as if he'd just run a marathon as the soldier simply asked, "Feel better yet?"

"Getting there," Tony wheezed for a second before then pushing himself up off the floor a little bit. "I don't actually blame you for this mess." Tony felt the need to say the words despite his previous melt down. He figured that he owed Barnes his honesty. At least considering what he was about to do.

Bucky hummed. He already knew that.

He also knew that Tony had to be absolutely crazy about the kid to get into any sort of a screaming match/fisticuffs with him. So he figured that since he was just being overprotective of Ichigo, he'd let the way that he'd acted towards him slide.

Though the whole 'crazy like a fox' thing still had him a little bit confounded as Tony said, "Listen, you may not like what I'm about to say..." Bucky tilted his head back to look at the man, his face marred by a frown as he studied him. "Given the event's earlier and stuff plus the news naming Ichigo as you're fiancee…" Bucky's frown turned to a scowl. "I-I'm worried what will happen if you don't stick to the story."

"What?"

"Hear me out before we start throwing punches again okay," Tony said. "I've looked up Prince Alim before. He wanted to try doing business with my company a year or so ago. But because he was proposing weapon's, I refused. He has six wives. All ranging between the ages of thirteen and twenty three. And he abuses them. Badly. If the press so much as catch wind of Ichigo still being a free agent... Plus he has diplomatic immunity which means that if he manages to grab her..." Bucky understood where this was going.

And while he didn't exactly like it. He understood what Tony was saying well enough.

"You want me to fake being engaged to Ichigo."

"As much as I'd like to say yes, it would have to be one hundred percent believable." Tony said as he rubbed the back of his neck anxiously.

Bucky just continued to frown at him as the wheels in his head turned as Tony went on to say. "I could write up a contract, something to set up parameter's for you're 'relationship' and to better protect the both of you. But you would both have to make it as real as you could. It's not a total guarantee that Alim will leave her alone. He's going to raise all kinds of hell after she punched him like that. But I think that it would go a long ways towards better protecting her. Ya know?"

"You're serious?" Bucky asked, his tone incredulous.

"I am," Tony said with a nod before going on to say, "She seems to like you. And whether you admit it or not- you seem to like her as well. And...at least with you I don't have to worry about her falling in with the wrong sort of person. No beady eyed little dumbasses just looking to get into her pants, ya know. You have some old fashioned values and given your personality- you would be good for her. And to her."

"Holy shit you are serious." Bucky muttered as he stared at the man wide eyed while trying to wrap his mind around everything that Tony was saying.

"I-I think I have her mom's engagement ring somewhere. You could use it-"

"You're really, really serious about this."

"Serious as a heart attack."

"B-But she's just a kid!"

"Technically, sixteen is the age of consent in New York. Besides, she'll be seventeen soon enough and as long as you have her parent or guardian's permission-"

"Jesus Christ are you even listening to yourself? She's a teenage girl! Not a piece of meat. Shouldn't she have a say in this?"

"She will. But before she completely kills me, she needs to understand the risks involved."

Bucky made a frustrated sound and covered his face with his hands before saying slowly, reluctantly. "Alright. Alright. I'm on board. But only if she's okay with this."

Tony smiled at him and started talking a mile a minute after that. Saying that he'd explain everything to her and oh- did he want to use her mothers ring? It was all Bucky could do not to actually snarl at him again that he didn't need her ma's ring.

If she was gonna be his girl, even in name only- he'd get her a proper ring himself.


	7. Chapter 7

A little while later Tony had dragged Bucky to where Ichigo was hiding out, and the two of them were standing just outside of the room. Hesitating. Well, he was at least. He felt like he was about to enter a mine field or something. He didn't know what the hell was holding Tony up until the man turned to him and said, "Barnes, if I die in here, take care of my girl."

Bucky blinked at him and felt his anxiety spike dangerously.

_Why the hell would Tony say-_ "Okay, here we go." Tony suddenly said, cutting off Bucky's confused thoughts as he reached out and opened the door.

They both jumped as it opened with a _'Swish'_ and shot nervous glances at each other before stepping through it. Tony exhaled after a moment or so, as if he'd expected the door to decapitate him or something and was surprised to find himself still in one piece.

Bucky was wondering where the hell Steve had scampered off too.

He needed his bestest meat shield!

Seriously, he was all kinds of freaking out here. He thought to himself as he caught himself almost reaching for Stark's hand like he sometimes did with Steve when he was freaking out and felt as if he couldn't handle things on his own.

The only reason Tony didn't find him attached to his hand like a leech was that Bucky didn't think the man would appreciate just how _anxious_ he really was.

That and he'd tease him mercilessly if they somehow managed to leave this room _alive_.

"Just follow my lead, okay." Tony said after a heartbeat or so of silence. Bucky merely cast him a- w_hat-the-hell-did-you_-_drag-me-into_ sort of look that he usually reserved for Steve. And on occasions, maybe even Nat.

But they were both jerks that loved dragging him into shit that he had no business being in.

_I need better friends_, He thought to himself idly as he followed Tony further into the room. Occasionally pausing to look around the place curiously. The room was decked out in Christmas lights, and had some weird Chinese lantern sort of thingies hanging here and there from the ceiling.

There were book shelves full of books and movies, a sterio, a small shelf of CD's, a few bean bag chairs, a hammock full of several stuffed animals and several colorful plush pillows hung between one wall and another.

And there in the center of the room was a small couch where Bucky could plainly see Ichigo and Thor and Bruce were sitting, staring at the large flat screen TV- _Oh shit_. They were watching the news!

Reaching out silently, he grabbed Stark and practically played charades with him until the man finally hissed out, "What the hell is your problem?"

"I-I think we're both woefully unprepared for this." Bucky finally muttered in a hushed tone. His mind is showing him weird images of the apocalypse, and Ichigo as a half giant radioactive lizard thingy stomping on the terrified masses of Tokyo.

"What?"

"We're going to _die_ Tony. I can't say it any simpler." Bucky said in a low tone as Ichigo slowly turned her head. She had probably heard Tony over the TV and known that they were coming.

Awesome.

_I wonder if I'll have an open casket or a closed casket? Will I even be in one piece when I die?_ He wondered to himself as Tony slowly edged towards her while Bucky's eyes flashed to the man's face and his mind practically screamed- _Bad! Bad Tony! No walking up to the angry girl! _

He was tempted to trip the man and run screaming from the room, but well, he figured that since Tony was practically a midget that he wouldn't slow the girl down much. And she'd probably be able to track him down easily anyways.

He was a bigger target than Tony was. So of course she'd be able to find him. But he'd bet that he was a much, _much_ faster runner...

"Hey pumpkin," Tony started as Thor and Bruce finally turned to look at them. "I guess you caught the news?" Tony asked hesitantly.

Ichigo looked at him and then at Bucky and sighed and quickly signed,_ "What do you want?" _

"Uh...well..." Tony started hesitantly before noticing her discarded plastic fork, spoon and knife from when she had eaten her dinner- and quickly picked them up and tossed them across the room and then looked her over again and then grabbed the TV remote and tossed it too.

It took Bucky several second to figure out what the hell he was doing.

But he finally caught on to the fact that Tony was tossing anything that could be used as a weapon to harm them as far away from her as humanly possible. He managed to get rid of some plastic bags- all the more to suffocate the two of them with. A few pillows...

What the hell was she going to do with those?

Bludgeon them to death with feathers?

Some batteries- _those_ Bucky understood. Batteries had several uses in fighting. You could hold them and hit someone, throw them to distract someone, and you could even- and this was only if you managed to pop an end off- poison someone with the acid inside of them.

Finally after he had tossed all of the batteries that he could find, Tony then turned to Bruce and Thor and kindly asked them to go and stand in the corner. At which point Bucky visibly bristled.

Was Stark yanking his leg?

How the goddamn was she supposed to use Thor and Banner as- his mind screeched to a abrupt halt as he went over that question again in his mind before deciding that- yeah, it was a _dumb_ question. Of course he understood how she could use them as weapons.

Death by Thor or death by Hulk.

Duh.

Next up was the coffee table, Tony wound up pushing it as far away from her as possible before finally returning to her and smiling at her before tugging her up off of her couch and then repeating the process with it too.

Bucky was looking at the man like he was insane by this point.

After all, just how _bad_ could her temper actually be?

But finally after removing everything from the immediate area and finally said, "We need to talk," Ichigo looked around at everything that he'd just removed from her reach and then narrowed her eyes at him as he went on to say, "It's about some of what you just saw on the news and part of what happened today while we were out..."

_"Go on." _

"Ya see, that prince that you punched in the face- he's a bad, bad man. He's married to several young girls between the ages of thirteen and twenty three..." Bucky saw something in Ichigo's expression turn dark and oh- so very _dangerous _as Tony continued, "And because he might come back- and if he managed to get you, he could make you disappear and I wouldn't be able to touch him. Not even the authorities in the government would- Barnes has already agreed to be...you're _betrothed_."

Ichigo just stared blankly at him for several heartbeats and then turned her head to look at Bucky and signed, _"An arranged marriage?" _As if she were curious to know what the two men were thinking.

Tony opened his mouth to say something else but Bucky went ahead and answered her, "Sort of and not really both at the same time. Tony's explained to me that if I do this- I will be signing a contract of sorts that is made to protect the both of us. However aside from that- we have to make the relationship as real as possible. T-That would mean touching, holding hands, kissing ect."

Ichigo walked over to him and stopped just a hairs breath away from him and studied him for a moment and then slowly signed, _"I'm a minor."_

"Technically, the age of consent in New York is sixteen. But...I know that. I also know that you're a gorgeous little gal and you have your whole life ahead of you. Tony is worried that the prince you decked earlier will come after you with the intention of smuggling you out of the country and torturing you in retaliation. I'm kind of worried about that too. Plus I already kind of messed up you're reputation shooting off my mouth before. It'd be dishonorable of me to make such a public mess and then leave you to clean it up."

_"I could kill him."_ She offered, totally uncaring of how he might feel about the offer.

"K-Killing him would start an international incident." Tony said somberly.

_"I can make it look like an accident, it wouldn't take much. Some alcohol, maybe a roofie- and possibly a woodchipper."_ She signed causing Tony to stare at her in disbelief as Bucky slowly said,

"I...don't think that would work. But let's call it a very far off plan B. Thanks for the offer though."

_"Do you even want this? I mean, really want this? I'm...not normal."_

He shrugged and then slowly said, "I-I had more than half of my life stolen from me, doll. I was cheated out the years I could have used to find some nice little gal and settle down. I was cheated out of the chance to have a family. And it's not like you're the only one...who's _not normal_. I'm pretty much a mess too. But Tony thinks that my presence could help you with the prince. And it wouldn't be any kind of hardship. I mean, I-I already _like_ ya. I have trouble taking my eyes off of ya as it is."

_"I have to finish school. And inevitably get a job."_

"That's fine. I wouldn't ask you to quit if that's what you're worried about," Bucky assured her. "And if you wanna work- that's good too. I sort of have to get a decent job myself. I mean, I have money but unless I plan very carefully it might not be the best to start a family on..." He abruptly shut his mouth and flushed and looked away from her, embarrassed by where his train of thought had just taken him.

While it had been true that his life had basically been stolen from him, and he'd missed out on the opportunity to find himself a nice girl to settle down with, marry and have a family- He shouldn't push his ideas onto Ichigo.

It wasn't fair to her. Besides, she didn't _like_ him. At least not in a romantic sense anyways.

And he _definitely_ shouldn't be liking her in any kind of a romantic sense.

After all, she was just a kid.

_"How would we go about...this?" _She signed to him, her expression a combination of wary and curious.

"We'd take things slow, doll. I'm not the kind of person who would force a gal to do something she didn't want to do. We'd go at _your_ pace. Anything beyond hugs and hand holding- should be asked for- especially from my end. And Since I don't know how long we'll be at this... Feelings could develop. A-Are you prepared to deal with that?"

Ichigo sighed and mulled his question over for a second before signing back at him, _"Are you?"_

He narrowed his eyes at her and had to fight down the urge to smile as he jokingly said, "Just for that I'm getting you the biggest most gaudiest diamond ring anyone has ever seen."

Her eyes widened at his words and she vehemently shook her head no as he asked, "So, we going steady?"

She sighed, resigned and signed, _"Looks like."_

He didn't like that resigned look on her face and didn't know how to respond to it. So he just pulled her into a quick affectionate hug and then let her go. Mentioning something about needing to talk to Steve and Nat about helping him find her a ring and then waved at her as he ran out of the door.

Leaving her to finish her conversation with Tony.

* * *

Ichigo's chest ached strangely as she watched Bucky leave before turning to Tony.

She'd known that something like this would happen. And she wished that she could be pissed about it. But it was after all one of the stipulations that Rukia had given the man before he had taken her in.

In the absence of her biological family- a _new_ one must be formed. Tony had already adopted her- sort of, because of this stipulation. And while he wasn't all that bad at the whole 'dad' thing. It still sort of hurt her to know that he had only done it because of the stipulation.

Not because he _actually_ wanted her.

No, he was her keeper until she was of age or married off.

Still...it hurt.

It would probably hurt more once Bucky found out that Tony was playing him. He had no intention of letting their relationship be a fake one. He was genuinely going to marry her off to Barnes without his consent or knowledge. Much like he was planning to marry her off without her consent.

Looking back at Tony, she didn't bother to hide the sudden tears gathering in her eyes.

Tony, for all his faults was just as human as anyone else.

He made mistakes. And she couldn't help but think that this would be another of them. Not because Bucky was a bad person. But because he would likely become very angry and bitter about being used again once he knew the extent of what he was being used for.

He wasn't just going to be her fiancée.

In a few short days, maybe weeks...he was going to be her husband. And it _hurt_.

Because he didn't really choose her either.


	8. Chapter 8

The moment that Tony saw the tears in her eyes, he felt as if he'd been punched in the gut. And oh- it _hurt_. He felt...absolutely horrible right now. And for good reason.

She didn't deserve to be passed from person to person like this. Even if it was sort of fulfilling one of the stipulations that he'd been given by the Agent? once he had agreed to take her in.

This...This was fucking_ wrong._

"Kid?" He said softly as he anxiously shifted from foot to foot for a moment. His dark eyes watching her closely. "I know that you didn't ask for this..."_ I know that you don't want this._ Is what he should have said. Because it was just as true as the other words.

"I know that you're...sort of on the fence about this. And that you aren't the least bit comfortable with it. But...I've done the research and Barnes- he's... He's a good man. The two of you have a lot in common. You're both protectors, warriors, and... I know that you don't believe me- but he's really the best candidate that I have. And I know that he'll be good to you." Tony said after a moment or so of trying to figure out what to say to her.

She just looked at him with that damned heartrending look on her face that made him feel alike an absolute _bastard _no matter how hard he tried to rationalize things.

He still didn't really understand the reasons why he'd been given stipulations when he'd decided to agree taking her in as his kid. Granted she was...definitely _unique_.

And her past as a- what was it again? A soul reaper?- was certainly colorful.

And she was perhaps one of the most_ powerful_ individuals that the world had ever seen.

But he still didn't understand the need of the stipulations that he'd agreed to.

_1) In the event that her biological family is lost, another must be made to take it's place._

That was fine, he sort of understood the first stipulation easily enough. Every kid needed a family. Love, security, safety, and companionship. That was simply a given. Especially when those bonds helped to shape them into who they would one day be.

Ichigo...had already been proven to cease functioning without those types of bonds.

The day that she'd awakened from her coma had been horrible and somewhat traumatic for everyone. She had nearly _died_ on them as soon as she had found out about her dad and sisters. The situation had been compounded once she had found out about the death of some of her friends and classmates.

She'd shut down. The shock of everything had simply been too much for her. It had totally overwhelmed her to the point where she had lain in her bed in the infirmary and simply stared blankly ahead as she slowly began to die from starvation and dehydration.

It had been horrible to see.

Even more so to know that she was basically willing herself to die.

It had taken some serious emergency care- IV's, a fucking feeding tube, oxygen and such- and she'd only ever snapped out of it several weeks later, after Tony had finally gotten desperate to snap her out of it and had managed to tell her that she wasn't alone. He was her family now. Though he'd given her the choice of accepting him as her family or simply wasting away.

The day after he'd told her that, she'd removed the IV's and the oxygen and had been wide awake and aware when he had gone by the infirmary to check on her.

She'd had questions. Which was more than understandable, he supposed.

And when he mentioned the stipulations that he'd agreed too she had just snorted and merely croaked, "Fucking Rukia." Indicating that she somehow apparently knew the agent that had contacted him and spoken with him?

The second stipulation, Tony didn't really understand the reason for. It bothered Ichigo, perhaps more than the first one. But from the way that she acted- she seemed to understand it's purpose far better than he did.

_2) Once Ichigo is of age- she must marry._ _It cannot be a fake relationship. It must be real and end upon death, with children._

The stipulation still confused him, even now.

Why would the agent? Rukia, care whether or not the stipulation was totally fulfilled? And why did it have to be a true relationship that ended upon death- with children? He'd been meaning to ask her what the second stipulation was even about, but had never really gotten around to it.

And Ichigo tended to be pretty closed lipped about some things.

Especially when it concerned her former abilities and some of the messes that she used to get herself into.

Finally after a few minutes or so, she seemed to finally pull herself together again and wiped at her eyes with the back of one hand and then huffed silently and then slowly meandered out of the room, leaving Tony alone with Thor and Bruce.

* * *

Bucky didn't bother knocking on Steve's door.

There was no point in warning the man that he was coming since he felt the nearly overwhelming urge to sock him good in the jaw for leaving him to deal with Tony and the rest of stuff all by himself.

Opening the door, he stepped through with a sigh. Wondering idly exactly _how_ in the world he was going to explain that he was no engaged to Ichigo to Steve when someone turned and looked towards the door and yelled out, "OH My God! It's Bucky's ghost!"

Causing everyone else- _what the fuck? _

Why were Steve, Nat, Clint, and Sam all sitting around Steve's home, drinking?

He heard Nat snarl out, "_Dammit!_ I was just a paragraph away from finishing the eulogy!" As she wadded up the paper that she'd been working on and tossed it over her shoulder before then demanding in a sullen tone, "Gimme another beer."

"Right away, ma'am Russia." Clint joked as he opened the fridge and grabbed her another drink and then handed it to her as Steve got up out of his chair and made a beeline for Bucky.

"Bucky! You're alive! We thought that you and Tony had killed each other."

"It was close, but we came to an understanding." Bucky muttered as he frowned at Steve before asking, "How many have you had?"

Steve just grinned at him and grabbed his hand and led him over to the couch and happily pointed to the mess that he'd made and said jovially, "That many!"

Bucky stared at the empty beer bottles littering the couch, the coffee table and some of the floor around them in dismay. "Un-fucking-believable." He growled in annoyance as he thought. _I somehow get conned into being engaged to a sixteen year old girl, and the punk comes here and tries to drink himself stupid. _

Just for this, Bucky was going to ask Ichigo to help him plan something just utterly terrible and traumatizing for his best buddy after the next time he talked to her.

In the meantime...he needed to get rid of the rabble and talk to Stevie.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a heads up for next month- I've lost my disability check. And my husband's has been cut down to 18.20. That's $18.20 to live on for a month.
> 
> And our food stamps- will be $15.00. 
> 
> I'm on mood stablizers, and anti depressants. I need to find a way to sell some stuff that I made.   
I have some gold pieces. And a lot of sterling silver.
> 
> I figure if I can sell one or two of those I should be able to help pay for half the month so that we don't have to worry about bills, groceries and meds for both myself and Tim. And my parents won't have to worry about killing themselves to help us.
> 
> But I can't get anyone to cooperate with me.
> 
> I told dad that if he didn't want to do a yard sale/flea market thing then I'd have to pawn some things. And I don't want to do that because I have some really valuable stuff that they wouldn't pay me for.
> 
> So I'm stressed again and I'm getting ulcers because I can't take much more of this crap. Something needs to give, but nothing will.
> 
> *sigh* I'm so damned tired....

Steve sat on the now, cleared off, couch with his head down and a frown on his face. Bucky had made everyone leave a little while ago.

Well, everyone except for Sam who had collapsed half way in the kitchen where he was lying on the floor attempting to sing, One hundred bottles of Beer on the wall. Only to pause every other breath or so and wonder aloud _why_ everything was spinning.

Bucky had just told him what had happened while he was here knocking drinks back with the others.

"So let me get this straight," Steve said as Bucky stopped tossing empty bottles in the trash bag in his hands for a moment to listen to him. "You and Tony fought."

"Uh-huh."

"You came to an understanding."

"Uh-huh." Bucky hummed again.

"And now you're _engaged_ to Ichigo?" Bucky hummed again in confirmation. The sound was starting to annoy the hell out of him. But he knew that Bucky wasn't planning to say much else at the moment. He was probably still sort of shell shocked to find himself in such a situation.

Steve couldn't really blame him. He was sort of shell shocked too.

Out of all the things that he'd expected Bucky to say to him- this wasn't it. Which begged the question. "Is she pregnant?" He asked all of a sudden causing Bucky to turn and _glare_ at him menacingly for a moment as Steve asked in a defensive tone, "What? It's a legit question. You do sort of have reputation when it comes to dames."

"I didn't touch the kid, Stevie." Bucky said in a low growling tone laced with ire.

"Well what if an alien or something did and now she's pregnant with a little alien baby or something?"

Bucky cast him a weird look over his shoulder that made Steve's hackles rise as he blurted out, "What?! We live in a world where aliens are a thing. I mean look at Thor. So it isn't as if I'm saying something totally outlandish!"

"She ain't pregnant Stevie."

"Well then something weird is up! Why else would Tony be wanting to practically marry the girl off?"

"Maybe it has something to do with her dad's will or something. I don't know. All I do know is that she's a good kid and Tony is freaking out that something will happen to her..."

"So...s-she's in trouble?"

"Did you not see her deck that bastard earlier today?" Bucky snapped at him.

Steve chuckled in amusement as he recalled the event with a grin. "How could I forget? She laid him out flat. The only dame I've ever seen hit someone like that was Peggy."

Bucky relaxed a little bit and made another humming sound as Steve asked, "So you're really going to do this? Engagement thing? What if the guy does come after her and shit? What if Tony decides that the two of you actually need to marry or something?"

"That's not really a problem." Bucky said softly. And it wasn't, for him anyways. He had already given the situation quite a bit of thought and could already imagine that being with Ichigo was a far cry from a _bad_ thing.

The girl was damned near perfect.

Or at least he thought so. She was easy on the eyes, smart, seemed to have a little bit of a temper- he hoped he never was on the receiving end of- was funny, sweet, kind. Really what kind of dame in their right mind would want a guy like him after finding out his history with Hydra?

This may be the only way that he'd ever manage to settle down at all.

And he couldn't help but think, what if this was his one and only chance to have a wife and kids? He could easily see Ichigo as a mother to his children.

Though he'd have to have a little bit of a better feel for her personality to know if she'd be a good one or not. But wasn't that what engagements and shit were for? Getting to know one another better.

* * *

Ichigo went straight to her room once she left her 'club house' and turned the radio on low and walked into the kitchen to see what she had for a snack.

Her lunch had been good and all, despite being eaten almost two hours late but she needed to eat something else since she didn't feel much like going to dinner tonight and eating with everyone else.

She needed some peace and quiet to calm her chaotic thoughts.

Opening up the fridge, she saw some various odds and ends.

Some pasta salad that she'd made using one of the recipes that she'd found only. Some more seafood. It was uncooked and she had like three pounds of each item.

Catfish, clams, shrimp (large and small) some sea scallops, stuffed crabs, lobster tails, a few other things.

Come to think of it- she should really go ahead and fix the stuff if she didn't want it to go bad. Closing the fridge for a moment, she checked her cabinets for stuff to use to fix it with. And found some packages of beer batter, some oil and some other things including spices to use to flavor it and scrunched up her nose a little bit as she debated on whether or not she should ask Bucky to come have dinner with her.

Would it seem too forward? It would sort of be their first official date, wouldn't it? She knew next to nothing about dating or anything else similar to it so she really didn't know what the man would think. Much less want or like.

Turning towards the nearest camera, she signed Friday's name to get the A.I's attention.

_"Yes, Miss Boss?"_

Ichigo signed her question. _"No. I don't think Mr. Barnes will think it too forward to ask him to have dinner with you. One moment and I will ask him," _Friday said and then fell quiet for a moment or so and then finally chimed back in. _"Mr. Barnes said that he would like that very much. He seemed surprised that you could cook."_

Ichigo rolled her eyes at the A.I's words and then quickly signed, _"I have to be able fend for myself somehow. If I couldn't cook- I'd have died a long time ago."_

Friday made a weird giggling sound in response to her words before chiming in again with, _"Mr. Barnes said that he will be on his way soon. He needs to get dolled up for you first."_

Ichigo signed that that was fine. She'd need a little bit of time to sort shit out and get started cooking anyways.

_"Do you needs some more recipes for your seafood, Miss Boss?"_ Friday asked as Ichigo started to pull some things out to get things started.

She paused for a moment and then frowned and set what was in her hands aside and signed the question, "_How much does Barnes eat?" _

_"Sargent Barnes can generally consume several pounds of food in one sitting."_

Ichigo huffed and signed again. _"Figures. Thanks Friday."_

_"No problem Miss Boss. And good luck."_


	10. Chapter 10

To say that Bucky had been startled by the dinner invite would be an understatement. But the fact that the mere thought of having a dinner date with her caused his heart to thud almost frantically against his ribs was more than a_ little_ bit hard for him to ignore.

Brushing his suddenly sweaty hand on his pants leg, he hesitantly asked what Ichigo was doing. And was even more surprised by the fact that she was cooking. He hadn't even been aware that she could cook.

And the fact that the dinner invite served as a sort of impromptu date of sorts, had him all kinds of nervous, excited and thrilled all at once.

Finally after a moment or so of thinking about how he would- no, should, respond to the A.I.'s question, he was about to tell it that he wasn't sure what he wanted to say when the A.I chimed in and said, _"Sargent Barnes, Miss Boss is feeling nervous, anxious and kind of vulnerable right now. Turning her down may be perceived as a bad thing."_

He clammed up quickly as he mulled over it's words before realizing that the damned machine had a frigging point. So after a moment or so, he finally told it that he'd go to dinner with Ichigo. He just needed to clean himself up a bit first.

The A.I. seemed amused by this, but told him that that was fine. But he shouldn't doll himself up too much. He might make Ichgio envious enough to scratch his eyes out.

He snorted at the playful attempt at teasing from the A.I. and then waved to indicate the end of the conversation as he turned and meandered off to get himself ready for his...date.

It took him all of twenty minutes to clean himself up a little bit. Or at least enough to still be comfortable and look nice for Ichigo.

He'd changed his shirt into a nice cream colored sweater, and then after re brushing and pulling his hair back into a ponytail, left his room.

* * *

Ichigo was looking over a recipe that Friday had kindly sent to her cell phone for shrimp salad.

She had already cooked the shrimp- it hadn't taken much really to simply cook them in some water until they were nice and pink. After which she'd drained them and placed them on a plate to...do something with.

The recipe was simple enough.

Shrimp, some diced red onion, cut up celery, dill, seafood seasoning, some lemon juice and mayo mixed together in a bowl. And presto. Delicious shrimp salad.

Well, in her case it was...mush with stuff in it. But at least it tasted okay.

Not too mayo-y, not too dilly, not too lemony or spicy. If anything she could really taste the onion and celery.

_Maybe I shouldn't feed him this?_ She thought warily to herself with s slight cringe. She doubted that food poisoning counted as an actual date activity.

Turning back around, she signed_, "Did I do this right?"_ At the camera. However received no help whatsoever from Friday this time. It was like the A.I had suddenly gone into hiding or something. She did however get a text from the A.I. on her phone, stating.

**It's your first date. You need privacy.**

After which she huffed and signed to the camera, _"You. Suck."_

After which she got another text saying, **If things go badly, feed it to him. Maybe the food poisoning will make him really think about how lucky he is to be alive. I hear that near brushes with death can do that to a man. **

Ichigo snorted and shook her head as she picked up the bowl and walked towards the fridge to put it away so that she wouldn't have to worry about killing the poor unsuspecting man when her door opened and he walked in and paused for a moment.

"Ichigo?" She jumped and nearly dropped the bowl from his sudden appearance. He just stood there watching her for a few seconds, patiently waiting for her to tell him to come in as she tried to calm herself down.

Friday hadn't been kidding about her being anxious. The only other person that he knew tended to jump that high when nervous was a coin toss between himself and Steve.

Finally she motioned him in and started to open the fridge as he got a text on his phone from..._Friday?_ The A.I. Stating that he needed to at least taste what she had in her hand to see if it was okay. She was nervous about making it part of the menu and the assurance would go a long way towards calming her.

So after walking into the small kitchen area, he gently plucked the bowl from her hand as she was going to put it away and then looked around for a fork. Luckily Ichigo was a fairly neat person, even while making a mess. So the fork was easy to find.

Collecting some of the goopy stuff in the bowl on his fork, he eyed it curiously.

He could plainly see some pink stuff that smelled fishy. Some red onion chunks and celery pieces. Some little green thingies and...a shit ton of white. Sour cream? Mayo maybe?

Possibly a combination of both.

Shrugging his shoulders, he eyed the kid and noted that she was staring at him wide eyed almost in horror as he put the stuff in his mouth and took a moment to chew before then swallowing. Whatever it was, it didn't taste bad.

Maybe a little bit lacking in something, but not bad.

If Ichigo wanted to serve it as part of their dinner- he wouldn't complain.

"This is pretty good. What's it supposed to be?" He asked after he swallowed what was in his mouth. Ichigo quickly did something with her phone and then forked it over as she turned a nice fetching shade of pink. He set the bowl aside and looked the recipe over and almost laughed at the silly girl.

No wonder she was freaking out.

She made a shrimp salad with more mayo, spices and veggies in it than actual shrimp. He could fix it for her if she didn't mind. Handing the phone back to her after a moment or so of memorizing what he was looking at, he suggested adding a bit more shrimp to it if she had them.

She didn't bother getting huffy or even protesting, she merely pushed a bowl of shrimp towards him along with a plate and knife to use to cut the stuff up on. Because apparently she didn't have a cutting board.

He handed her phone back to her and chuckled as he took the items and started to fix the little mess that she'd made as she returned to fixing the rest of the food.

The scallops were cooked in garlic butter to give them a little bit of flavor and once they were done they were set aside before she started to fix the big shrimp and the catfish and stuff. He could smell something with crab in it cooking in the oven.

Once he was done with the shrimp salad, he had her taste test it to see if he'd done alright. And earned a pretty smile from her as a reward, after which he put the stuff in the fridge and she shooed him out of her kitchen.

The rest of their dinner took the better part of an hour in a half to fix. Some of it was slightly more complicated than the rest of it was. And when she was in doubt, she would sign for him to try something and see if it tasted okay. Which was fine, he didn't mind being able to taste her cooking first hand.

It was nice. And he figured out pretty quickly that Ichigo was pretty good in the kitchen.

Plus he got a decent snack to whet his appetite before their dinner. So that was cool too.

Finally once she was done cooking, she placed everything on a few plates or in a couple of bowls and then finished up everything by making some home made dipping sauces for the stuff while he tried to figure out where they were going to eat at.

She didn't have a dining room table. At least not one that he could see anyways.

"Doll? Where is-" He started to ask where the table was as she set the last of everything out on the counter that separated the kitchen from the rest of the room before holding up one finger and then walking out of the kitchen so that she could move to a closet off to the side.

He watched her curiously for a moment but upon seeing her drag out a long table with short legs, he caught on quickly. It was a traditional Japanese table made of solid cherry oak, stained a dark brown color.

Once she had it out of the closet, he moved to get it and carry it somewhere to set it up for their dinner.

He decided to set it up in the living room between the couch and the TV where there was plenty of nice carpeting to sit on as Ichigo went to a small shelf in the back of the living room and grabbed something and then walked back to the table and set the item- which actually turned out to be three items- down on the table and then signed that he could arrange them while she grabbed the food, dishes and silverware.

It took a few trips back and forth between the living room and the table, but finally she managed to bring everything and set it out for them both after which she handed him a plate and some silver and then looked over everything. The candles that she had pulled off of the shelf were strategically positioned in various places on the table.

And they had been lit, which was fine since the living room was starting to smell like honeysuckle, and cinnamon. Which was good since having her living room smell like fish for days after this would have bothered her immensely.

"Doll, don't mean to point out the obvious but shouldn't we have drinks?"

Ichigo turned that fetching shade of pink again and turned to scramble back into the kitchen to grab them something to drink when she was suddenly caught around the waist by one of Bucky's arms and held up off of the floor for a few moments as he nuzzled her jaw and laughed softly.

"I'll get the drinks doll. You just sit down and try not to get more frazzled than you already are." He said gently as he set her back on her feet and then walked away.

She huffed softly, a small pout marring her face for a moment as she moved back to the table and then sat down and simply waited for him to return.

When he finally did, he was checking out the sugar count on several Crush grape sodas, and some Arizona Raspberry tea. Apparently trying to figure out if he should take one over the other to prevent her from getting hyper.

The joke was on him. She didn't get hyper.

So she could damned well drink what she wanted.

"Hn, the sodas have a lot more sugar in them than the tea..." Bucky said more to himself than her as he continued to look between the drinks in his hands. "I'm not sure if I like you drinking such sugary stuff, doll. For all I know it turns you into a giggly mess," He muttered with a small frown before sighing and setting the drinks down on the table before then saying, "But it is a special occasion, so maybe I should just let you drink it and see what happens. I guess I can drink some...tea." He said the word with such a distasteful look that Ichigo had to fight the urge to snicker at him as he sat down next to her and then placed a grape soda in front of her while he handled the tea like it was a grenade or something until he finally placed in in front of himself.

"Okay doll, Lets dig in before all of you're hard work goes to waste." He finally said as he looked over at her with a smile and then picked up one of the plates piled up with food and handed it to her to let her get her share before he did.

He didn't want to accidentally eat it all before she could get any. That would be all kinds of rude.

Especially since she had done all of the work.

Dinner was surprisingly pleasant. Bucky spent some time in between eating to ask Ichigo questions so that he could get to know her a little bit more. It was mostly the standard stuff.

Favorite food, movie, music, flower, color, book ect.

Ichigo's favorite food was her late mothers home made curry. Her favorite movie, was a coin toss between action movies, horror movies and stupid B-movies that were so unbelievably gory that it was fun to make fun of them and the terrible actors in them.

Bucky had merely nodded his head in understanding, since getting free of Hydra- checking out horrible B-horror movies had become a semi favorite past time of his as well. For the same reasons, of course.

That and Steve would occasionally catch him watching something gory and lose his lunch.

It was still fun to watch em though.

She had more or less let him listen to a few of her favorite songs. She wasn't a huge fan of rap. But she did have a few that she liked from a rapper called, Eminem. The rest of the song's she favored were from movie sound tracks or oldies from the eighties and nineties.

Stuff by Duran Duran, Billy Idle, David Bowie- he still didn't know why she liked the song Magic Dance, but after taking the CD case from her and getting a look at the guy, he couldn't stop himself from thinking- _Really? This pretty boy? _

She also played a few songs from Dropping Daylight, Daughtry- he liked her choices in songs there. The Superman song, and White Flag especially caught his interest. She also let him listen to a few from Breaking Benjiman, Sick Puppies, and so on.

He couldn't resist slipping his arms around her at least _once_ and taking his dame for a little spin around the living room as a sort of experiment to see how receptive she would be to going dancing sometime with him.

He wasn't disappointed.

And from the sweet smile on her face, he'd say that Ichigo wasn't either.

She was a wonderful dancer. Light on her feet and graceful. She didn't mind him putting his hands on her waist or even spinning her around and then dipping her before setting her on her feet again and laughing softly.

The two of them sat for hours even after the food had been eaten and the dishes washed and put up to dry, just talking about stuff. They both exchanged stories from their childhood.

He told her what he could recall of his family, how he first met Steve back when he was a scrawny little thing prone to running into people's fists.

And she told him about her family and friends.

She told him enough about her mom and sisters to let him know that she'd been totally crazy about them. And enough about her dad to wish that he could somehow magic the asshole back to life just so that he could kill him again.

She told him funny stories about her friends.

Which ones that she lost and the ones who still lived. She mentioned missing all of them and that if she'd been able to actually speak right then- she would have called them often to see how they were doing. She told him that she worried about them because she wasn't there right then and they might need her.

And then she started to have a panic attack and kept signing over and over, _"What if they need me? What if their in trouble right now and I can help them but I'm not there?!" _

Bucky did his best to calm her down. He slipped an arm around her and gently tugged her against his chest and simply held her there and made soft shushing sounds as he told her that it'd be okay. Her friends were fine. They would call if they needed her.

She calmed down after a little while, her body slumping against his own limply as her head lay against his chest almost in a doze as Bucky checks his watch to see what time it is before muttering an oath.

The two of them had been extending their little dinner date for hours now. It was almost twelve thirty five am at night, and he'd arrived around seven for their dinner. So Ichigo had to be tired if she was starting to doze off on him.

Slipping his arms around her, he gently picked her up and then stood so that he had her cradled in his arms. She made a low whining sound, the sound of which must have hurt her throat a little bit if the nearly violent way that she twitched was any indication at all.

Her sleepy eyes blinking up at him as he carried her out of the living room and into her bedroom and gently set her down on the edge of the bed and then asked her if she wanted to change.

She looked towards her dresser and slowly shook her head no. And he just smiled at her and helped her into bed and pulled the covers up over her as she tried to bite back a yawn.

"Sorry I stayed so late," Bucky said in an apologetic tone as he tucked the covers up around her shoulders. She shook her head at him and signed, that it wasn't his fault. Her little episode earlier had left her feeling drained and more tired than she was used to. He could sympathize since his panic attacks tended to do the same to him. "Tell you what, get some rest doll. And sometime tomorrow I'll take you out- We'll borrow one of Tony's nice cars and everything."

She gave him a small amused smile and signed that she'd had a good time tonight.

Bucky merely sat himself on the edge of the bed and brushed her hair back from her face and told her that he'd had fun too and then took her hand in his and kissed the knuckles before softly bidding her a goodnight.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> https://www.ebay.com/usr/423raven24.432
> 
> is the link to my ebay store if anyone wants to try looking up anything.

The next morning started out like usual, with the exception of Bucky acting as if he were walking on sunshine that is. He even grabbed Steve while he whistled a little bit of one of Ichigo's favorite songs and spun the punk around like he was dancing with him.

Causing everyone to watch him almost warily while Steve smacked him on the shoulder a few times to get him to let him go and then quickly scrambled across the room and hid himself behind Natasha and glared at him from over the small read heads shoulder.

Bucky didn't care though.

He was on cloud nine.

His impromptu dinner date with Ichigo the night before had gone great! So much so that he felt giddy to get the day started.

All he needed to do was corner Tony and con him out of some car keys then he'd see if Ichigo was up so that they could leave. He figured that they'd just sort of meaner around a little bit in town and do some window shopping at a few boutiques or something.

Girls liked that, didn't they.

And then of course he might suggest that they hit a couple of jewelry stores so that he could find her a nice antique style diamond ring to put on her slender little ring finger.

He knew that she might ask _why_ he simply didn't use her mother's ring instead, but the simple truth of it was that that ring was her ma's. It was something beautiful and sentimental and it simply wasn't his to give.

Depending on how things went between the two of them, he wanted Ichigo to hang on to it for her kids.

No that wasn't quite right- _Their kids?_ He wanted her to hold onto it and give it to one of their kids. Hopefully one that was responsible enough not to try pawning it or something.

Bucky would throw a hissy fit if his damned kid did something so damned stupid. He wouldn't stop Ichigo from taking them to task over it either.

A child should have a healthy fear/respect of their mother. It kept them in line.

And he had a fair idea that Ichigo would be great at ruling himself and any child they had with an iron fist just like his late ma. The mere idea made him feel weirdly warm and fuzzy as he asked Friday if she was up yet.

If she was, maybe he could see if she wanted to eat breakfast with him.

Friday told him that she was up. But currently indisposed.

He hummed and asked her to pass a message onto her, and then told Friday that he would like her to eat breakfast with him while he waited on Tony to show up.

Friday's message was easily delivered.

And Ichigo apparently sent one back telling him that he'd have to lay a trap for Tony and keep him willing to do whatever he wanted by refusing to hand the coffee over before he was good and alert enough to say no to anything.

It was an evil, evil plan. And Bucky absolutely loved it.

Which was why he was moving towards the kitchen to do something with the coffee before he really bothered to think about it any.

A little while later Ichigo walked in wearing a nice cream colored sweater dress that fell down to her just above her knees and a pair of leggings and some flats. Her hair was damp and pulled back into another top knot ponytail. Bucky smiled at her until she walked by one of the windows and he saw the light play on her hair and nearly had a fit.

Instead of a nice good morning, how did you sleep? As a greeting, he instead blurted out. "You dyed your hair."

She paused in mid step and looked at him wide eyed as a hand went up to touch her hair subconsciously for a moment as he walked around the little island separating the kitchen from the rest of the room and tilted his head a little bit as he noted that the orange hue was gone from her hair.

Masked by a pretty shade of bottle strawberry blond that had almost a pink hue to some of the highlights.

I-It was nice.

_Shocking_. But nice nevertheless.

_"Is it bad?_" Ichigo signs at him, her expression somewhat wary.

"God no, babe. It's..._beautiful_." Bucky breathes with a goofy little grin on his face before quickly realizing what he'd just said and going on to nervously tell her that there was nothing wrong with her original color- Wait, was the orange hue even her original color? It was pretty either way. So he supposes that it doesn't really matter any.

She turns that pretty shade of fetching pink at his compliment and then signs that the orange color wasn't a very respectable one and tended to stand out far too much.

She's right of course. Most people see something orange on a person's head and think one of two things- Road cone? Or fire?

"Well it looks good either way, doll." He says gently as he reaches out and takes one of her hands in his and grins down at her. Unaware of the fact that everyone in the room had long fallen silent and was simply hanging around watching their interaction curiously as Tony walks in and makes a beeline for the kitchen.

Bucky mutter's a quick and slightly apologetic sounding, "Oh hell." And scampers back into the kitchen, startling Ichigo slightly with his weird acrobatics display.

Who the_ fuck_ did a back spring flip over a fucking counter anyways? She wondered idly as she hears Tony and Bucky arguing in the kitchen.

She rolls her eyes and decides to leave the two to it, assuming that Tony doesn't just decide to _murder_ him for his coffee and goes to steal some food while she can. She's barely been sitting down for five minutes when everyone pauses eating upon hearing Tony let out an ungodly howl as Bucky quickly races form the kitchen and stops by her seat just long enough to grab her and say in an urgent tone, "Come on, come on, come on! Quick! We need to run!" As he technically pulls her right out of her seat and sort of tosses her over one of his shoulders and then takes off for the closest elevator.


	12. Chapter 12

One of the first things that Bucky did once in the city was go straight to a little eatery where he decided to grab them both some breakfast since he'd never gotten to eat, and he'd rudely dragged her away from her own meal.

Which was both, comically _amusing_ and kind of _mortifying_ as well for him as well since he was supposed to take care of his girl. In his defense though, he hadn't expected Tony to lunge for him and cause him to accidentally _drop_ the, already laxitive laced, coffee pot and break it before he'd hightailed it out of there.

Ichigo knew that they both had fairly fast metabolisms. Even if it was for very different reasons.

So she didn't protest when he stopped for food anymore than she protested eating almost seven Mc'Donald's breakfast burrito's slathered in a _lot_ of sour cream, and pilfered at least three of Bucky's eleven sausage and biscuits.

Of course given the fact that he practically ate more than half of the place's breakfast menu- including _eigh_t of her hash browns, meant little to her as long as he didn't dare to touch her large caramel frappuccino.

She was sort of like Tony when it came to coffee or caffeine.

If she had a coffee in her hand- she expected to be left alone until the caffeine kicked in. Otherwise she'd do something..._horrible_ to someone.

As it was, she hadn't slept more than a few hours the previous night and had awakened early after a really bad nightmare and spent the rest of the night wide awake- counting down the minutes until dawn. Of course it hadn't helped her any that her Soul Reaper badge had started going off.

She'd picked it up out of habit, fully prepared to change into a soul reaper when she had suddenly remembered- that she wasn't one anymore.

After that, she had just sat down and lifted her knees to her chest and stared blankly ahead at absolutely nothing for a little while.

"Doll?" Bucky's questioning tone suddenly cut through her thoughts enough to gain her undivided attention. He was looking at her strangely "You okay? You looked like you were a million miles away for a moment there."

Ichigo smiles at him, and signed that she's fine.

He merely stared at her hard for a moment before slipping his hand inside of his pocket and pulling out his cell and turning it on. Ichigo frowns at him for a moment wondering what he was doing as he pressed another button or two and then hands it to her and tells her to type something out on it.

She blinks at him and then slowly types out the word, "Okay." And then freezes up all of a sudden when some weirdly sultry- Jessica Rabbit type voice starts saying what she typed.

Slowly turning her head to look at him questioningly, the embarrassed flush on her face was difficult for him not to laugh about. He knew that the new app that he'd added to his phone would be great to help her speak with. He hadn't taken into account however just how much fun it would be to flat out embarrass her.

"I decided to try a new app that would let me talk to you without you having to sign everything. Watching you're hands can be distracting, ya know."

She typed, "Oh. Sorry." And visibly cringed before quickly adding, "Get rid of the weird voice." And then held his phone out to him. He shook his head at her and gently pushed it back at her.

"Nu-uh, doll. Until those stitches come out of your neck, I have nothing but my imagination to help me figure out what you'd sound like-"

"A frog?" Came the somewhat comical reply. Bucky had to bite his bottom lip just to keep from snorting in amusement.

"Well yes, I suppose at first you would sound like a frog. You haven't used you're voice in how long?"

"About a month or so. Give or take a few days."

He made a humming sound and watched her fiddle with his phone out of the corner of his eye. She was attempting to figure out how to change the voice on the program. He could tell by the way she looked as if she wanted nothing more than to toss the stupid thing out the car window.

Her scowl just got darker and darker until she reached out to roll down her window, at which point he growled out, "You better not be thinking that you can toss my phone."

"And what if I am? This sultry, seductive voice is grating on my nerves."

"I know it is. That's why I picked it out to be your voice." He said with a grin.

"You...are a sick, sick man. Whack off often to the big titted bimbo that this voice belongs too?" Ichigo grinned as Bucky sputtered and turned a little bit red before growling at her,

"Language!"

"Bite me."

Reaching over, Bucky grasped her hand in his and lifted it to his mouth. And bit her.

* * *

It was almost an hour later before they reached their destination and Ichigo was silently plotting her revenge for the bite mark that Bucky had left on the back of her hand. It wasn't so much that he'd bitten her that she wanted revenge for. It was just the principle of the matter.

One didn't _bite_ people.

It wasn't like she was out with a toddler- for which exceptions could be made.

After all, on a lawless playground the toddler with the best jaw strength usually won all of the fights. And a healthy dose of fear from everyone wanting to stay in one piece.

"Still pissed at me doll?" Bucky asked as he parked the car and started to open the door.

"No."

"Why don't I believe you?" He asked as he climbed out of the vehicle and came around to her side of the car to open her door for her and narrowly escaped being taken out by the door. He let out a little yelp as he jumped back and looked at her wide eyed as she climbed out and gave him a sweet smile as she closed the door behind her.

"Self preservation instinct. That door would have taken you out of commission if you didn't have it." She smiled at him as she walked by him.

He just stared at her for a moment and then muttered, "Well that's not _ominous_." As he fell into step right behind her, with the intention of catching up to her. They were a couple now and he wanted to hold hands!

Even if it meant that she might shove him in front of a bus in a fit of temper.

He caught up to her easily thanks to the fact that she had stopped for a moment to look around and let him. And once he finally managed, he grabbed on of her small hands in his and waited for her to look at him before smiling at her. Not the least bit concerned with the fact that she'd tried to cripple him a moment or so ago.

He was a big boy after all, he could take anything that she threw at him.

Pulling her close to him, he kept a light hold on her hand as the two of them walked around the shopping district. There were a lot of stores, boutiques, antique shops, dance halls, eateries and a few smalls trip malls jest about everywhere in this part of the city.

The two of them could literally walk around for _days_ just checking things out.

They walked around for the better part of forty five minutes, just...holding hands and enjoying one another's company when Bucky finally asked her what she wanted to do. It was looking more and more like his window shopping plan was sort of backfiring on him.

In the past forty five minutes that had passed a bunch of interesting looking boutiques and shops- but Ichigo didn't seem the least bit interested in any of them.

He'd never met a gal that _didn't_ like window shopping before so he had no idea how to proceed here.

"I'm not sure," Ichigo finally typed out on his phone. "I've never been window shopping before. Usually when someone takes me shopping with them- I wind up carrying their things for them and don't really get to look around at all."

He frowned. That...actually explained a quite bit. It also explained why she didn't seem so interested in looking around. She didn't know what exactly she was supposed to be doing. She only ever got dragged into shopping to be someone's pack mule.

It kind of made him mad that someone treated her like that.

"There's a lot of places around here. So if any of them catch you're interest, just...stop by one of the front windows and we'll go in and check it out." He said awkwardly, not exactly knowing how to explain the concept of window shopping to her.

"O...kay..." And with that she slipped her hand from his grasp and walked over to a shop just ahead of where he was standing, and stopped outside of it and then looked back at him.

He shook his head at her and walked up to see what she was wanting to look at. It was a fortune teller's shop. One of the typical, old fashion palm reading con shops that used to be around even back in the forties.

It was kind of nostalgic. And creepy as fuck.

So he vetoed that place and dragged her away from it. And once they were about a block away from it, he finally let her go and suggested that they look someplace else.

She huffed at him and randomly pointed at a shop.

It was a denture shop.

He didn't even know that shopping districts had _denture_ shops. But it was something. So they both went it to check it out, and walked back out barely ten minutes later holding a _bunch_ of dental health and hygiene brochures.

"Um...doll? H-How about we just go look at some clothing shops or jewelry? I still have to get you a ring you know."

"Yeah. We should do that." Was all that Ichigo could think to say once she managed to think beyond her embarrassment. So that's what they went and did.


	13. Chapter 13

As it turned out, going clothes shopping with Ichigo was probably the best thing that Bucky could have suggested for the two of them to do. His girl had a pretty damned good eye for colors, fashions that flattered, and fabrics. There was probably more to it than that, but he tried not to dwell on it overly much as he watched her sort through another rack where she had already found and handed him three separate shirts that she had found for him.

She had picked out a nice green, long sleeved shirt for him that was of some sort of cotton blend that made the fabric feel baby soft to the touch. Followed by a black one and a sapphire blue one that matched his eyes.

She also found him a couple of button down flannel, plaid shirts that would make Stevie positively _green_ with envy because of just how damned good they looked on him.

He'd already gotten a flirty look and a compliment from one of the sales women when he had tried one on, and thought that Ichigo was going to rip the woman's head off- if the look that she'd given the lady was any indication at all- before she had promptly pushed him back into the dressing room and told him to take the damn thing off before he started a riot.

Bucky was planning to wear one the next time he was in the general vicinty of Steve so that he could laugh at him while the man whined about how unfair the world was when it came to his handsomeness vs. Bucky's.

They hadn't had that old argument in the better part of seventy something years.

So they were about due for another row.

After that Ichigo had found him a few nice hoodies to wear when he was in the mood. Though she had flat out admitted with a blush that she might occasionally make one that smelled like him disappear.

He'd been a bit taken aback by the admittance. And flattered too.

God was he flattered.

His gal had all but admitted that she liked the way that he smelled. And the stupid grin that had found it's way to his face- hadn't disappeared yet.

Ichigo had taken one look at his face and his stupid grin and had slowly, as if it really mattered any, moved as far away from him as possible. Again, it hadn't mattered any- he followed her wherever she went like an overgrown puppy. She'd finally given in to the fact that he was going to follow her everywhere in the store regardless of her wishes and simply started to pat him on the shoulder before she moved on to look at something else.

She had thought for a moment to look at some pants for him, but after taking one look at him standing there in the form fitting jeans that he was wearing and quickly and quietly seemed to veto the idea and then moved on.

Finally after looking at everything, she turned to him and typed out, "Do you wanna try finding something for me while we're here? Or do you just want to get those and leave?"

"Hn? Y-You want me to see if I can find some clothes for ya," He seemed a little bit nervous and excited by the prospect of being able to dress her up like an actual doll. Though Ichigo tried not to really think of it that way. The was merely an exercise in learning one another's taste. "And you'd actually wear them?" He asked after a moment or so.

She nodded her head slowly and steeled herself for some of the horrible things that he could find her in a place like this. I mean, they had really girly _skirts_ and _dresses_ galore.

"Yeah, okay." He said after a moment or so as he went back to the door and found a buggy and placed all of his clothes in it and then came back and then found the nearest rack of women's clothing and started to go through it and pulled a black dress from it within two minutes.

Ichigo sighed and waited for him to place it in the buggy, but he didn't. He merely took several minutes to scrutinize the item of clothing, a frown marring his face as he did so, and then placed it back on the rack and moved on.

He found her a couple of hoodies similar to his own. Though different enough in design.

One was a vivid sapphire blue that turned aquamarine towards the bottom of it with a pretty butterfly print on it. Another one was black with a print of a skull and crossbones on it in white. The third one was a pretty mint green. Nothing else, just plain green.

He found her a few sweater dresses that would come down to her knees. A navy one, an emerald green, a black, a ruby red, and a nice cream colored one.

He also found her two button down plaid shirts similar to his own, and grinned at her as he put them in the buggy as he commented, "We could wear them at the same time."

Her lips twitched in amusement before they moved on.

He also found her some leggings to go with the sweater dresses, and some ankle socks- because apparently recent scientific studies showed that all females tended to get cold feet during the night.

_His words;_ not hers.

After that the moment of truth came. And he did find a couple of dresses for her.

Just two that were really dressy looking. And when she asked what he wanted those for, he merely shrugged and said, "Maybe I'd like to take my girl out dancing sometime." It was sweet of him given how much she liked music and stuff. So she didn't bother to complain about it.

It wasn't like wearing them would kill her anyways.

Once everything was paid for, the two of them left the shop with their stuff.

Bucky carried everything, much to Ichigo's dismay. She had offered to carry at least half of the stuff, but he had merely shook his head at her and told her no. He would carry everything.

It was his job to do so._ Not hers_.

Leaving her more than a little bit puzzled about what he meant as they left to go somewhere else. It was well after noon by this point, and Ichigo didn't know about Bucky but she was starting to get hungry again.

She looked around for some place where they could maybe get something to snack on while Bucky walked beside her, covertly watching her out of the corner of his eye.

Finally they came up on a little old eatery that sold hamburgers, hot dogs, onion rings, cheese sticks and other things and Ichigo made a beeline for it. In her defense though, her metabolism was making her stomach feel as if it was eating her backbone- she felt almost shy of absolutely _famished_.

Pausing outside of the building, she cast a glance at him from over her shoulder and caught him just staring at her with that damned goofy grin on his face before he started to walk over and join her.

The two of them sat down and ordered themselves some lunch. Something that Bucky believed that Ichigo was really grateful for, considering she looked like she wanted to kiss him by the time their meal was brought to them.

As with breakfast, they both pilfered food from each other.

Ichigo had gotten herself three hot dogs topped with slaw and mayo and mustard, two hamburgers with everything on them- extra onion, pickles and mayo- and five orders of cheese sticks.

The second Bucky's hand went for one of her cheese sticks she smacked his hand so quickly that Bucky nearly jumped out of his skin. And then she pilfered one of his onion ring orders and made him growl at her when she proceeded to eat them while giving him a grin.

All playful food stealing aside though, he was just happy that she didn't try to grab one of his burgers. He was just hungry enough at the moment that she might have actually lost a hand.

Once they finished up their lunch, Bucky asked her what she wanted to do next and was somewhat surprised when Ichigo suggested paint ball.

However he turned the idea down when she decided that they could play _'war'_.

Despite the fact that he no longer held the Hydra programming or trigger words, the Soldier was very much still a part of him and his personality and he didn't want that part of him to have so much as a chance to come out if he could help it. And he didn't much like the idea of playing such a game with her in a darkened room where she could manage to sneak up behind him and possibly get hurt.

He wasn't totally sure what would happen if he got triggered, but he was worried that he'd attack her if he did. So once he vetoed her 'war' paint ball thing. Ichigo suggested a few other things. All of which where far less dangerous to her health. And sounded _really_ good to him.

It'd been forever and a day since he'd last been to the movies. And there _were_ some interesting things currently showing that had caught his eye. Ichigo had also mentioned dancing, if he really wanted to go.

But he didn't know any places that opened early in the day and stayed open half the night.

However he knew that even if they _did_ go dancing- he wouldn't have any time to look for her engagement ring. Ichigo would likely keep him nice and distracted the whole time they were at a club.

Finally, he decided on what they should do- and told her that they'd go and see about finding her a ring, and then if she wanted to hit a movie theater or something and cuddle in the dark with a tub of popcorn then he was totally game.

Upon seeing her nod in acceptance of his suggestion, he stood up from his chair and grabbed their bags and then held a hand out to help her up. Ichigo looked at it for a second, and he simply wiggled his fingers at her as he waited patiently for her to take it.

Once she did, he gently tugged her up out of her seat and then slipped an arm around her shoulder's and led her over to the door.


	14. Chapter 14

The moment that Bucky and Ichigo stepped foot into the first jewelry shop- some nice little antique jewelry place about half a block from where they'd just come from- Bucky became a man on a mission. Slowly, he released Ichigo and meandered away from her and walked over to the jewelry cases to start looking for the perfect ring for his girl.

Leaving Ichigo to her own vices for the time being.

He wasn't going to lie, he had this weird nervous pit in his stomach that made him want to puke and practically vibrate with giddiness all at once.

Everything in the shop was estate, vintage and antique. All authentic, one of a kind pieces of jewelry dating all the way back to the late eighteen hundreds; if the sign hanging above the sales counter was to be believed at all.

It only took a slightly longer than usual automatic glance to see that there were several pieces in several of the main cases that would give Tony a damned stroke. Not because they were fake or anything.

Far from it.

He could tell with one look at each item that not only were they actual gold, platinum, and gemstones- but they were so damned outrageously expensive that even Stark would have to pawn shit just to afford one piece out of one of the cases.

Speaking of, he should mention the place so that Tony could buy something for Pepper.

They did have an seven year anniversary coming up, after all. Assuming that the woman was still putting up with Stark's crap that is.

It only took him a moment to recall that he'd given his phone to Ichigo before he mentally kicked himself for not having a spare on hand to use for his shenanigans. But after seeing Ichigo using her phone to take a few pics and then send a text.

He didn't feel so much like kicking himself anymore.

His gal was _obviously_ just as devious as he could be sometimes. Which was something that he would have to remember for future reference just so that he could keep himself from getting on her bad side. Something told him that he'd have enough days and nights spent in the dog house when he stepped out of line.

He didn't need to fuck himself over even more by being a dumbass too.

There was a glaringly obvious line between _mischief_ and _stupidity_. He didn't cross that line often, but whenever he did- it was usually _all_ Steve's fault.

Speaking of, the next time that Steve dragged him into something stupid and got him into trouble, he was throwing him under the bus.

He loved the punk like a brother and all...

But something told him that it would be detrimental to his health to blame Steve for the things he'd sometimes get into. Especially when it wasn't his fault. Besides it wasn't like Steve couldn't take the punishment.

He was a big boy, after all.

Finally after looking in several cases and dismissing a lot of rings, he found some that could work perfectly. There were platinum. Which...wasn't terrible. But it was more along of the designs that he really liked.

They were definitely old fashioned. But stunningly tasteful and eye catching.

"Hey doll, come here and look at these." Bucky called out over one of his shoulders and gave Ichigo a funny look as he saw her hand one of the sale's reps a little box and a long one and then nod her head as the guy beamed at her happily and walked over to one of the registers to wait for them to finish.

Once she was done with that, she walked up already typing out a message on his phone that sounded suspiciously defensive as his phone said, "What? You took me into a jewelry shop. Of course, I'm going to find stuff."

"So what did you find?" He asked curiously as she moved up beside him to look at the stuff in the case before he heard his phone say.

"I'm not telling."

"Alright." Bucky snorted before the phone then said.

"And you aren't paying for those either."

"Huh?" He asked, feeling oddly offended that she didn't want him to get her items as she went on to explain.

"You aren't paying for the items that I found. We're here to get a ring. I can pay for my own stuff, especially since I don't want you using up more money than you have too for this."

He supposed that she did have a point. And being as she was Starks kid, she likely had a nice chunk of change put away for spending. So he didn't argue overly much after that. Though he _did_ point out that they probably had a layaway plan.

She still told him no. So he let the subject drop.

That didn't mean that he wasn't the least bit curious about what she'd found though.

Pointing out a couple of the 'could be' rings to her, he asked for her opinion on them. Ichigo thought carefully about each one that he pointed out to her before bothering to respond.

Some of them were...okay, she supposed. Not quite what she had in mind for an engagement ring. But she had always liked the older stuff. So she suggested that she try a few of the pieces on and see what stuck.

Bucky grinned at her and reached up to frame her face in his hands and gave her a quick kiss on the lips, before pulling away stammering out an apology. He hadn't meant to kiss her without her permission and was embarrassed that he'd lacked the control to stop himself just then.

She didn't say anything.

She just sort of looked down as her face turned pink, and simply refused to look at him for several minutes as another sales rep walked over to help them out.

The first ring was beautiful. Well, technically they all were. But some of them simply had a little something more that Ichigo couldn't quite put her finger on that made them even more beautiful than the others.

This ring was one of them.

The second that Bucky slid it onto her finger and she looked up at him, she could literally see a _million_ possibilities for the future. But all of them ended the same.

The two of them, old, and grey- Bucky just slightly greyer than she was, because apparently she didn't age gracefully as an older woman- curled up together on a bed holding hands as their hearts both stopped beating at the same time.

In a picture frame by their bedside, there was two old images of the two of them on their wedding day. And beside it a picture of four children. Two girls and two boys.

All of them a perfect blend of herself and Bucky's characteristic.

_So this is what fate has in store for me..._ She mused to herself as something in the vicinity of her chest grew warm as she glanced away from him for a moment to look down at the ring. And for once since awakening from her coma to find her world had been ripped apart by Aizen, Ichigo was finally at peace with things.

Tony being her new dad. Thor and Bruce being her adoptive brothers. Even her sudden engagement to Bucky. She was fine with it all now. If what she had just seen was really her future with this man, then who was she to fight it?

"This one." She typed out on Bucky's phone and then slowly slid the ring off of her finger so that he could take it. He looked at her in confusion and just a little bit of doubt.

"Doll?"

"It's this one. I'm sure."

"O-Okay," He stammered out, still looking just a little bit confused. "We'll get this one." He said as he handed it to the sales rep who quickly ran to his register while she walked over to where her things were and quickly payed for her stuff while the rep rung up the ring.

Once Bucky had payed for it and taken the receipt and placed it in one of his pockets to keep track of, he turned to Ichigo and slid the ring back onto her finger figuring that since it was payed for now, she could just wear it out of the store.

Nodding his head to the rep that had helped them, he uttered a polite thank you and then led her outside before finally asking, "Do you like it?"

"I do." Was the simple response that she gave him. It may have been just two mere words. But they went a long way to dispel the anxiousness that he was feeling.

"I'm glad that you like it sweetheart." He finally said as he kissed the top of her head as she dug a small black leather box out of her bag and held it out to him.

He blinked at it, and then glanced at her curiously before taking it.

"Well? Are you going to open it?" She asked as she watched him. He gave her a warm smile and opened the box and peered at the item nestled inside of it.

It was a ring.

It was a platinum, and diamond band made specifically for a man's hand.

Letting out a loud, and sudden bark of laughter that had people all over the side walks in their general vicinity turning their heads to look at them, Bucky reached out and placed his hands on Ichigo's shoulders and drew her in close so that he could hold her for a minute while he got himself back under control and muttered in-between chuckles, "You have got to be the only girl that I've ever know that would actually get a fella an engagement ring too!"

"It doubles as a wedding band." Ichigo supplied helpfully as his laughter gradually died down.

"Thank god for that, doll. It means less shopping for us both later," He said as he drew back away from her and took the band out of the box and then slid it onto his ring finger and gave her a dazzlingly happy smile. "Is it okay if I try kissing you again?"

"Only if you do it right this time." She said.

"Challenge accepted." Bucky said in a husky tone as he used a hand to tip her head back so that he could press his mouth to hers.


	15. Chapter 15

Their date came to an abrupt and _violent_ end not long after they left the movie theater after watching the latest Halloween film. Bucky had never seen any of the others, so he was a tad bit out of the loop on the movie franchise.

He'd loved the epic ending to the film though, and had even laughed and muttered, "Burn bastard, burn!" Almost audibly enough for Ichigo to hear him as the family of surviving women had set the killer on fire and then escaped the grandmother's home before it had gone up in flames.

In his defense though, as out of the loop as he was on the franchise- he understood well that Michael Mires was a serial killer and difficult to stop. So he'd been more than satisfied with how the film had ended.

Until...Ichigo had mentioned that there would probably be a follow up film sometime down the road.

Then he just got pissed and threw their popcorn at the screen and _booed_. In his opinion if Mires came back in another film after being trapped in a burning home and somehow surviving- then he likely wouldn't die. _Ever_.

And that was upsetting given how many bodies the character had dropped in the film.

For god's sake half the people that the man had killed in the film had been kids Ichigo's age! Of course he was going to be upset that the character had likely survived.

Ichigo didn't care that he booed the film's ending. Or the fact that he grumbled and muttered darkly about all of the things wrong with the ending of the film under his breath as they made their way back towards the car.

Stopping only once, when he managed to check his watch for the time and noted that they had been out walking around for more than half the day.

The time was quickly closing in on five thirty in the evening and he decided that before they finally went back to the compound, that they'd go somewhere for a nice cozy dinner.

He'd seen a pleasant looking steak house in the area, and wasted no time in steering Ichigo towards it with a hand on the small of her back.

It only took a few minutes to reach the place, and once there they were quickly led to a table towards the front of the building where the windows were. The two of them placed their orders and were waiting on their food and drinks, unaware that there were several news reporters in the restaurant that had noticed them walk in together and were suddenly watching their every move.

As per their usual antics every time they ordered something, the two of them stole food from one another. Which only ended when he managed to grab Ichigo's wrist and leaned over to kiss her before he let her go and went back to their meal.

Everything was going just great. The two talked, and teased and laughed together and then when Bucky went to pay their bill- that's when the vultures struck.

In hindsight he should have expected something along these lines to happen from the beginning and warned Ichigo on what she should do. But it had been the furthest thing from his mind. Part of him had simply wanted them both to have a day of uninterrupted peace for their date.

So he hadn't so much bothered to go over anything remotely resembling the possibility of someone pulling something so fucking dumb. That was his mistake.

What had damn near caused him to get violent was that one of the more stubborn reporters had actually had the audacity to grab his girl by the arm and _shake_ her when she had flat out refused to answer any questions that he and two others asked her about their relationship.

Bucky didn't actually see this happening at first since he was paying for their meal. But once he was done and started back towards where he left Ichigo and their things, and saw several people crowding around her- he slowed his pace a little bit to see what the hell was going on.

And when the one guy shook her- his blood fucking _boiled_. So much so that he let out a loud, feral sounding growl and quickly closed the remaining space between himself and the others. Once he finally reached them, he grabbed the guy shaking Ichigo by the wrist and squeezed hard enough to almost shatter his wrist.

The guy abruptly released Ichigo, almost causing her to fall and hit her head on the wall. Earning another angry growl from Bucky as he released the guy and shoved him roughly away from her so that he could grab her before she did fall. Once he had her back on her feet again, he moved himself so that he was between her and the reporters, his hands moving to frame her face as he asked her if she was okay.

She nodded her head, though he could tell that she was hurting from being grabbed. She subconsciously rubbed the place where the asshole had grabbed her arm as he sighed and then told her that they were leaving.

They grabbed their things and he slipped an arm around her shoulders to keep her close to him and started for the door as one of the reporters suddenly shouted in a shocked tone, "Are those rings?!"

"Son of a bitch," Bucky muttered as he cast a dark look at the three from over his shoulder and just kept walking. "Ichigo, I need you to stay quiet. Don't use the phone. Don't use any sign language- something tells me that these people are going to dog us all the way to the car. I just need you to stay as close to me as possible. And don't rise to anything stupid that someone may say. And if another one of them touch you like that guy did again, we'll let the lawyers handle it. Understand?"

Ichigo nodded her head in understanding as they left the building.

True to Bucky's word, the three did dog their steps. Each one shouting questions at them the whole way. It didn't matter any though, the two just ignored them.

It took far longer than Bucky would have liked, but they finally reached the car. And once Bucky unlocked it and held the door open for Ichigo while simultaneously blocking her from the vulture's view. And then moved to unceremoniously tossed their things into the back seat before then heading for the driver's side of the vehicle.

They were almost home free when the guy from before pulled open Ichigo's car door just as Bucky started to back out of the parking space, and made the mistake of grabbing her again while he jogged along side the vehicle.

Ichigo made a strangled sound of pain? Or was it _fright_? It didn't really matter which it was, because it made Bucky absolutely livid.

Reaching across her lap, he pried the fool's fingers off of her and then in a cruel and uncaring manner _slammed_ the car door on his arm hard enough to, snap the bone.

The man screamed and collapsed in the road as Bucky closed the door harshly and then floored it. The tires squealing as he left the intruders in the dust while he absently tugged his girl close to his side and ran his fingers through her long hair as she trembled.

Tony and his lawyers were going to have a field day with this shit. He just knew it.


End file.
